Think you only need a business performance advisor when things are not tracking so well?  Not so. All businesses need help at some stage – even the fastest-growing businesses can have stressful cashflow issues.  For any business, the chance to work with a good business advisor should be seen as a positive thing.

There is growing research to show obtaining external business performance advice is closely associated with positive business performance – especially in our more complex, fast changing, socially and technology led world.  There are loads of benefits to hiring a business advisor especially in future-proofing your business, as a savvy consultant will tap into all available resources to ensure continued business health.  A good advisor can enhance your business growth, ensure customer retention and acquisition, identify effective marketing solutions, implement process efficiency, boost employee retention and productivity, reduce business costs and build operating profits in a reasonably short period of time.  They can also navigate mergers and acquisitions, the sale of the business, or helping you exit the business through retirement.

All this means you get to spend more time on the things that matter most in life – and have more money in your back pocket.

The survival of any business relies on constant evolution and transformation.  A business advisor will work collaboratively and closely with you to overcome any resistance to change, adapt and help the business stay relevant.  Keeping up with the market, the competition, implicitly understanding your customer base (even on a global scale) is key.  But it’s hard when there’s often a need for you to ‘stay on the tools’ when you need all-hands-on-deck to keep the day to day operations going.

Key ways a business advisor will give you a competitive advantage

Business growth:

Cashflow and operational profit are the big winners here.  This is about your business success.  Predicting the necessary processes, and what levers to pull around revenue growth or cost cutting, is a challenge.  Your business advisor will put you on the right track and resource you to help get this area right.

 Big picture experience and expertise:

Sometimes your business will run into issues because of this digitally disrupted world we find ourselves in.  Some processes are now more complex or you find it harder to reach your customer base, or there’s more competition. Ensuring these problems receive the necessary amount of attention to grow the business is always positive for the owner.  Your business advisor will provide best practice and effective solutions.

Times of change and challenge:

The only constant is change and working with a business advisor to guide you through change can help dramatically due to the advisor being independent, objective and having a different lens on the business.  Your advisor will help you plan for change and create unique solutions that reflect the need of the business and your aspirations, whether it’s around staff, operational processes or in sales and marketing.

Save time and money:

The business owner’s time is valuable.  Your business advisor’s expertise will save you time and very quickly be a justifiable expense because you’ll likely see a strong return on the investment.  Your advisor will help you make decisions on budget savings or inefficiencies and help you develop strategies to manage growth and increase profits to improve business performance.  Plus, often there is the transfer of skills to you and in-house staff to ensure you have on-going positive results.

Business support:

One of the biggest concerns NZ business owners have is not having any, or enough, support or help to navigate the maze of business issues.  This makes for a very lonely work existence and often stressful work life balance.  A business advisor changes this, by working in true partnership and collaboratively with the owner and providing the sounding board too often not available in the workplace.

So, whether your business is growing or needs some help in some areas, your business advisor will give you real benefit in helping you stay on track and make you more successful.  Giving you more of what you want, and less of what you don’t!

Find your local Prime Strategies Business Advisor and get started on your path to further success.