DGP’s Top 10 Areas To Address For Business Growth Or Exit
1) ENSURE BUSINESS GROWTH BY CREATING A VISION & STRATGIC PLAN:
- Create clear and well-articulated Mission, Values, and Vision statements. These things are fundamental for business growth.
- Create a well-articulated strategy statement documenting your competitive game plan and how you will attack your market.
2) ENSURE LEADERSHIP TEAM IS HEALTHY, ALIGNED & EMPOWERING TALENT TO PERFORM:
- Team members feel comfortable participating, understand each other’s differences/styles, and engage in healthy debates.
- Leadership team empowers and motivates talent to optimal performance and meets frequently as a team for strategic thinking sessions.
3) ENSURE ALIGNMENT & MEETING CADENCE:
- Ensure the critical KPI’s and priorities to drive the company forward are established and staff roles & goals roll-up under each priority.
- Ensure a meeting cadence and visible performance charts are established to ensure information flows through the firm.
4) IMPROVE QUALITY OF PEOPLE & ENSURE ACCOUNTABILITY:
- Assess your team. Build a strong engaged team modeling your core values. Ensure the right people are on the bus and in the right seats.
- Ask yourself, can you take a 2-week vacation without checking in and feel confident that the company will run smoothly without you?
5) ENSURE BASIC REVENUE GENERATION ENGINE IS IN PLACE:
- Create a defensible and well-articulated Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy that is validated with a realistic financial model and forecast.
- Ensure the GTM strategy is executed and generating revenue without the founder as the primary marketing and sales resource.
6) IMPROVE PRODUCT/SERVICE DIVERSITY:
- Issues with a product/service can cause sales to drop off quickly; ensure product quality and diversity to reduce risk to revenue and maintain business growth.
- Cultivate product variety, mix, brand names, and intellectual property with a goal to increase customer average order size.
7) IMPROVE QUALITY OF EXISTING CUSTOMER BASE:
- Rollout Net Promoter Scores. Act on VOC feedback. Nurture “sticky” relationships via contracts/subscriptions & frequency of reordering.
- Ideal customer concentration = 1 customer no more than 10% of sales. Top 3 to 5 less than 40% of sales, if possible.
8) IMPROVE EBITDA / CASHFLOW GENERATION:
- EBITDA is used to help assess the cash generation engine of the business. Cash is oxygen for the business and needs to be plentiful.
- EBITDA is also used to value a business, so maximizing EBITDA will help maximize the value of your business.
9) IMPROVE QUALITY OF PROCESSES & TECHNOLOGIES:
- Higher quality processes and infrastructure helps ensure a business runs efficiently and “under control”, especially when scaling.
- Prioritize core processes, systematizing ad hoc/“tribal knowledge” activities and automate high impact / low difficulty projects first.
10) ENSURE CLEAN FINANCIAL STATEMENTS & REPORTING:
- Audited financials will give you, investors, and/or a potential buyer confidence that your numbers and reports are accurate, reducing risk.
- Regularly reporting, reviewing, and acting on KPI’s will help ensure you execute your plan and accomplish your strategic objectives.
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