Productivity is NOT just working harder
With transport insolvency figures on the rise in Victoria, and Australia-wide, we’re telling our transport clients it’s more important than ever to focus on every aspect of their transport businesses to identify the one-percenters that can improve their business’ performance.
Transport businesses across the country are failing due to poor strategic management, inadequate cash flow, poor financial controls, trading losses, under capitalization and the prevailing economy.
To help our transport clients survive and thrive in what is currently a tough industry, we recommend they put three key focus areas under the microscope:
1. Customers
- Have you identified your best customers, how you recruited them, and strategies for recruiting similar clients in order to grow your business?
- Have you identified customers who are costing you money to service and devised strategies to improve profitability or move them on?
- What is your business doing to enhance your customers’ businesses? Are you investing in the longevity of your client relationships by adding value? After all, it’s easier to keep existing clients than to sign up new ones.
2. A business vs a job
- Is your business a profitable entity in its own right, or have you just bought a job? Are you earning more than a market wage?
- Have you examined every facet of your business?
- Do you understand your numbers, and are you using them to identify areas of potential saving and growth that can improve – or even turn around – your business’ performance?
- Have you looked at your business’ systems and processes through the eyes of your customers and your staff? Do they enhance their lives?
- Is your reporting timely and accurate enough to guide effective decision making within your business?
3. Creating a robust business
- Are you working in your business or on your business?
- Is your business set up for sale, and have you set yourself up financially for the retirement lifestyle you aspire to?
- Do you have the correct structures and strategies in place to underpin financial success?
- Are you listening to the stories in your numbers?
- Are you focusing on the areas of your business that will have a meaningful impact on your bottom line?
- Is your equipment efficient, safe and of a standard that reflects well on the professionalism of your business?
- Are there ways you could further optimise use of your assets in order to maximise the equipment you’ve invested in?
- Do you have a solid company culture?
- Which team members are kicking goals for your business and which are holding you back?
- How can you infuse your staff with a passion for your business that matches your own?
- Have you sought expert advice on how to convert business wealth into private wealth that set you up for life beyond your transport business?
Using these questions to conduct an in-depth review of your business will give you the insight you need to maximise income, minimise expenditure and overheads, optimise your client base and improve your company culture, ensure your transport business carries you into a secure and prosperous future.
For information on how Matthews Steer can help you cast the microscope over all facets of your own business please contact Adrian Misiano on 03 9325 6300.