Problems with your business
Overview
Your experience as a business owner or manager will enable you to solve many problems without help. If your problems are serious or not related to your skill set, it is important to seek specialist help as soon as possible. More than half of the UK’s small businesses fail because of cash flow problems, and a total of nearly 17000 companies became insolvent in 2011. Most of these businesses could be running profitably now if professional help had been sought at an early stage.
Here are some of the business areas where you may have issues that need to be addressed:
- Financial
- People/Staff
- Sales & Marketing
- Health & Safety
- Legal
If your problem is less critical, it can still be cost effective to use outside help. You will save time so you can get back to running your business and also have someone with whom you can discuss ideas. Most managers tend to see the problems and solutions they understand and may give less consideration to those outside their own realm of experience. Sometimes problems are not recognised until it is too late. If problems can be identified early on, they can almost certainly be fixed, but the longer they are allowed to fester, the harder it is to recover.
For example, if your sales are low, is this due to a financial problem (lack of revenue or cash flow or investment), is it a people problem (the sales force is underperforming or are badly managed), or is it a marketing issue (you haven’t researched the market thoroughly, or need to improve your website)? If you go straight to a finance specialist or a website developer, you could be wasting time and money as your problem has not been effectively diagnosed.
Problems tend to get worse rather than go away, so act promptly if possible.
Engaging Support
ibd Advisers have experienced a wide range of challenges in many different business scenarios, some severe – but they prevailed and learned valuable lessons which they are eager to pass on. We firmly believe that every problem has a solution – so long as you recognize and diagnose the issue early enough.
We have identified the most important issues you may be facing if you are having Problems with Your Business in the links below - but please do explore the full Expertise menu on the left for a more comprehensive overview of the business disciplines we routinely deal with.
| Finance | Legal | IT | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing | People & HR | Standards | Business Planning |