Being Agile – Think Outside the Box and Make the Most of the Situation

Example

During the recent Auckland floods Chris Hipkins, new Prime Minister and MP for Upper Hutt did just that.  He seemed to turn up everywhere offering support, moving people’s stuff out of the mud and generally being a helpful hand.

Chris used his energy and enthusiasm to turn a bad situation into an advantage. 

Current big issues both effecting and facing the business environment include:

1. Ongoing labour shortages
2. Increased pay rates and costs of employment to retain staff
3. Increased cost of living driving up inflation and interest rates
4. Shortages of raw materials creating demand issues and price increases
5. Climate Change

Being Agile means being able to think outside the box and being adaptable, including making compromises to deal efficiently with the current situation in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way.

Labour shortages, increased employment costs and inflation are – per the latest economic forecast – thought to have peaked. Predictions are that staff shortages will ease this year from a combination of:

1. Increased immigration
2. Businesses closures – brought about by businesses not being able to adapt to the conditions. Business owners who are open to change and want to survive will also be impacting on the businesses of those business owners who refuse to adapt.

 

What can you do to learn how to think outside the box and make the most of the situation?

To be able to change, your business model must be Agile, which means that you need to:

1. Be able to rapidly adapt to both the current and changing environment.
2. Be aware of your capacity constraints and target your client base and target markets that offer the best returns for the least amount of effort.
3. Ensure that your product / service costing models are up to date. This includes passing all increased costs into your pricing. You must retain your profitability and cashflow to survive.
4. Review your processes to increase productivity and reduce duplication and waste.

 

If the above is outside of your skillset, then help is available. Providing the necessary assistance to achieve what needs to be done is exactly what Good Business Advisors like myself do.

When you are working in the business you are often too close, or too emotionally engaged, to identify all potential opportunities. Many of these opportunities for improvement, which often involve better and different ways of doing things, will seem obvious once they are pointed out. The obvious often only becomes the obvious when a fresh set of eyes brings it to your attention, and that is what I excel at. Into the Blue NZ Limited is an expert in business reviews and costing models.

For more information on how I can help contact john@intotheblue.co.nz or (021) 625-871.

 

Learning to Live with what you can’t control – It’s all about being Agile

It’s mid-May already and, just to survive, we’re having to learn to live with:

• Covid-19 in the community
• The Russia/Ukraine war
• Ongoing supply chain issues
• A cost-of-living crisis which includes increased inflation and interest rates
• Labour shortages in all business sectors, covering employment areas across the board, from unskilled labourers through to highly skilled engineers and medical professionals.

As a Business Advisory service, Into the Blue NZ Limited is being increasingly called upon to help companies through this unprecedented crisis. In the current climate, it is crucial that Business Owners and Managers are enabled to make the decisions necessary to steer their operations safely through the upcoming months, so that they emerge successfully out the other side. Being Agile is the key, and Into the Blue offers the skillsets and advice to achieve just that. 

The most topical support and advice we are currently providing includes:

• Business Reviews and Business Plans to work out better ways to run businesses in the current environment plus the creation of Action Plans to move the Business forward.
• Writing variable Costing Models to allow Business Owners and Managers to be able to easily update key cost drivers such as labour and fuel.
• Financial Review, Analysis and Planning to show how the business is currently operating (good or bad), to allow for the implementation of key drivers to better understand the business.  This will also include the impact of a business downturn from both reduced production (staff shortages causing capacity issues) and a general decrease in demand.  The cost of changing your market strategy, cost cutting, cashflow management, refinancing loans, staff redundancies, etc.
• Cashflow Management and Planning including refinancing loans at lower interest rate, interest rate holidays, the use of Government subsidies and tax deferments. 
• Exit Strategies and Succession Plans including business valuations for those Business Owners who are looking to either retire, bring new blood into the Business, or just cash up.
• Acquisition of competitors or related businesses to acquire market share, diversity and additional workers.
• Start-Ups which include both existing and new Business Owners looking to do something new that better fits with the current environment.

 

Into the Blue is expert at providing agile solutions to Business Owners and Managers. Additionally, we also provide a 2-minute online Business Health Check with immediate feedback on how accurate your own perception of how your business is functioning actually is: https://intotheblue.co.nz/business-health-check/

If you would like either more information or to make an appointment, please call John on (021) 625-871 today.

Into the Blue NZ Limited – expert at thinking outside the box.

New Zealand is really the lucky country when it comes to Covid-19.  It’s mid-February, we escaped the Ruakaka and Orewa bullets but are now desperately waiting to hear on test results resulting from the positive South Auckland Covid-19 tests. 

It is now time to start preparing your businesses for 2021 as change is constant and it will continue to be a major feature in 2021.

Business Services that are currently trending include:

1. Business Planning – businesses are asking for help to both enable business planning to get them through this year and to develop multi-functional Business Plans.

A multi-functional Business Plan is to not only help Business Owners plan for what and how their businesses are going to trade and operate for the next 3 to 5 years, but also to show potential investors that they know their market and are prepared.  These investors can include:

• Financial institutions – re-capital to grow the business or to survive a short-term decline in market conditions.
• Potential buyers – there are currently a lot of cashed up buyers in the marketplace so it can pay to be prepared if one either taps you on the shoulder or you just decide it’s time to sell. 

2. Business Reviews – businesses who think they are not doing as well as they could, or think something in the business is not working but cannot identify what it is, are looking to obtain professional business reviews to identify where the actual problems lie and then Action Plans on how to rectify the identified issues. 

3. Marketing and Digital Enablement or Enhancement including branding – Businesses are looking for help with:

• Customer analysis – how their customers are tracking and what markets their best customers occupy, in order for them to enable targeted marketing.
• Websites – either enablement or improvement to ensure they have up-to-date websites targeting the markets in which they want to operate.
• Newsletters linked to both social media and their websites thereby integrating their marketing opportunities.
• Branding review 

4. Exit Strategy or Succession Plan – Business Owners from their mid-50’s+ who have had a health issue, not necessarily serious, that has resulted in an overnight(s) hospital stay, are realising that they are not bullet proof and it may be time to think about cashing in and enjoying the fruits of their business’s success while they are still able.

Into The Blue NZ Limited offers all the above services which are also registered with the Regional Business Partner Network (RBPN).  This means that if you are interested in contacting Into The Blue for help and register with the RBPN you may be eligible for co-funding to cover up to 50% of our fees.

As Covid-19 continues to ravage the globe, it’s looking like 2021 is going to demand a lot of adaptability and agility for your business to succeed.

New Zealand will need to be on high alert if we want to ensure that both the original and new virus strains do not escape any of our quarantine centres. Vaccination is the long-term solution but it’s sounding like we’ll have to wait, with the first round hopefully being rolled out to front line personnel in March/April and to the rest of us anywhere from June this year up until as late as mid-2022.

In last month’s newsletter, I raised a flag about a raft of imminent changes which, whether we like it or not, are going to have a big impact on NZ business.  The ones that we know are coming really soon include the “Climate Change Emergency”, Sick Leave increase, Fair Pay Agreements, and an additional Personal Tax Band.

Once Government reconvenes after the Christmas break, we will start to see the implementation of the new compliance regulations – and that means the associated costs will start to impact our businesses.

Additional compliance will include:

1. Increased environmental compliance involving the tracking of energy and waste savings. This
   additional compliance, first openly discussed in February 2020, was put on hold owing to the Covid-19 lockdowns, but with the passing of the Climate Change Emergency Act, it is highly unlikely to experience any further delay. The Act demands the setting and meeting of energy and waste savings targets – initially focused on fossil fuels and waste going to the tip – and there is even talk of penalties being imposed if those targets are not met!
2. An additional five days of sick pay per employee – but fortunately no change to the accumulation
   number (yet!)
3. Fair Trade Agreements as implemented in Australia but for all businesses. This basically means
   awards by job type or trade; that is, if you employ staff with different trades or skill types, each trade
   or skill type will have its own award.

That’s quite a lot of change to take on board in a nervous Covid-19 world; so, to stay ahead of the game, and depending on which of the following categories you fit into, you should now be thinking about how you are going to incorporate the new compliance requirements into your existing systems:

• Businesses that have done well during Covid-19 should look at improving business planning, and reviewing both processes and systems to ensure the company is prepared for the new compliance.
• Businesses that have not fared so well in the last year should consider a full business review focused on improving business planning. It should involve not only a review of processes and systems, but also look to review marketing strategy, specifically where it touches on customer analysis, point-of-difference, and competitive advantage/edge.
• Business owners who are at the enough is enough stage should start thinking seriously about developing an Exit Strategy or Succession Plan. There is currently a shortage of businesses for sale in the marketplace and a surplus of cashed-up buyers looking for a business opportunity. With the right grooming your business can be sold at a premium. The combination of business circumstances that have created this environment are unique, and there is no knowing for how much longer they will last; so, if you fit this category, I’d advise getting in while the going’s good.

Into The Blue NZ Limited offers a full range of business planning services, including Business Plans, Business Reviews, Exit Strategies and Business Valuations. All Into The Blue NZ Limited services are registered with the Regional Business Partner Network.