Time for a New Business Model?
Is your business model working in this Covid-19 environment? For a lot of businesses, the chances are, NO, it is not working.
The biggest three reasons for this are:
- A lot of businesses are still struggling to recover from the “lockdown” closure where they lost the equivalent of 2 months of cashflow between March and May.
- A lot of businesses are worried about a second wave of Covid-19 and the associated “lockdown,” so are not prepared to make commitments as the perceived risk is too high. Oddly enough a lockdown is one of the perfect opportunities to think about what you could be doing differently and a telephone conversation or Zoom meeting with a Business Advisor should help you to come up with some viable options.
- It is winter which is traditionally New Zealand’s off-season.
Running a Business Advisory Services business is no different. I have had to update my service offerings, enhance my digital footprint, update the way I work and the way I charge clients so as to limit their commitments as much as is practically possible while still making a living.
The grass roots of this work were completed during the previous lockdown.
The traditional Business Advisory model was to sign-up clients a year on monthly fee (which we called an investment) payable in advance. If the client was lucky, the Business Advisor may have suggested 50% co-funding up to $5,000 from the Management Capability Voucher Fund.
The new business model is for Business Advisors:
- To be registered with the Regional Business Partner Network (RBPN) with multiple client services (the RBPN manage the Management Capability Voucher Fund).
- Obtain as much Government funding as possible from the RBPN, which currently includes:
- 100% Covid-19 Business Advisory funding up to $5,000 over a 6-month period. This was originally capped at $2,000 over 3 months so for those that have already had $2,000 from the original offering there now the opportunity for a potential top-up.
- If a client wants to continue past the 100% funding, they can apply for 50% co-founding up to $5,000 over a 6-month period. This was previously set at a 3-month period.
- All RBPN funding is paid directly to the Business Advisor.
- Complete all client paid work on an hourly rate, as required by the client, payable by invoice due the following month.
If Business Advisors are not talking about Government funding and paying for non-funded work at an hourly rate payable after completion of that month’s hours they are not “walking-the-talk.”
Additionally, the really good Business Advisors will have a “Support Office” who will complete some of your work for them, such as surveys, at a significantly lower hourly rate than the Business Advisor which will be passed directly onto you the client at nil margin to the Business Advisor.
Into the Blue NZ Limited in association with Business Support Studio Limited (BSS) have put together both a Covid-19 Business Advisory Support Service, which is 100% government funded up to a maximum of $5,000 and 50% government co-funded services up to a maximum of $5,000 over the first 6 months. And, to make life even easier you can take advantage of both Services i.e. up to $10,000 of Government funding.
Into the Blue uses BSS predominately for digital enablement and enhancement including websites, surveys and branding.
