How to Improve Efficiency and Productivity

We all want improved profitability and two of the best methods of achieving this from your existing customer base are:

1. Good business processes that follow the critical path
2. A healthy and happy workforce

Good Up-To- Date Business Processes that follow the Critical path:

• Reduce duplication – do things only once.
• Reduce complexity – make it easier to do things.
• Reduce or eliminate rework – in some businesses a little rework can be a good thing.
• Make it both easier for you to do business with your customers and suppliers and for them to do business with you.
• Improve both efficiency and productivity thereby increasing profitability.

A Healthy and Happy Workforce including Owners and Managers generally leads to both increased efficiency, productivity and profitability.  But how do we know if our workforce is healthy and happy?  Answer: by conducting Health Checks at least once per year.

From using our Rapid Profit Radar Diagnostic, we found that many businesses do not have good up-to-date business processes in place; in fact, some have no business processes at all.  Additionally, while they hopefully understand the importance of health and wellbeing in the workforce, they are failing to offer annual Health Checks to their workforce.

If, like many businesses, you don’t know how to:

• Improve or write and implement good Business Processes, we at Into The Blue NZ Limited are experts in Critical Path Business Processes.
• Implement Health Checks into your business, we at Into The Blue NZ Limited have an extensive network which includes Health Check experts.

So, give us a call to discuss how we can help you with your business.

And we’re not afraid to put our money where our mouth is because, if you engage us, Into the Blue offers most mature businesses a Zero-Risk policy… No Improvement – No Fees.

For more information please either reply to this post or email profit@intotheblue.co.nz

For more information on creating or improving a business model please call John on (021) 625-871, and further more information please visit Into the Blue. 

Why are Business Processes Critical to the of Ongoing Success of a Business?

A business process is a set of activities and tasks that, that once completed, will accomplish a business goal.  This can include but is not limited to:

• Human resource management including employment, training, and staff retention.
• Production of your product or service from beginning to end.
• Sale of your product or service including order fulfilment.
• Procurement including making it easy for suppliers to work with you and you to work with them.
• Customer relationship management including customer retention.
• Financial management including invoice processing, work in progress and payroll.

Processes are critical to achieving the end goal in an efficient, effective and economical way.  Additionally, they provide:

• Roadmap / documentation to show how a business function works which doubles up as a training mechanism for new staff and a manual if a key person is suddenly absent from the business.
• A mechanism for identifying duplication and waste.

Business Processes should map the critical path for achieving a task and be reviewed and monitored on a regular basis to ensure that duplication and waste have not crept in from:

• Updated or new technologies, law changes, environmental changes, etc.
• Existing or new employees not following the processes and doing what they think is best such as only obtaining one quote for a major procurement item. This can occur from a number of reasons including lack of training, lack of supervision or just plain old laziness.

For more information on creating or improving a business model please call John on (021) 625-871, and further more information please visit Into the Blue. 

Four Day Week – Pilots

Last week, as part of my CA continuing education, the Focus on Management Special Interest Group had a presentation from Charlotte Lockhart, Founder and Managing Director of 4 Day Week Global.

4 Day Week Global is a not-for-profit community established by Andrew Barnes and Charlotte Lockhart to provide a platform for like-minded people who are interested in supporting the idea of the 4 day week as a part of the future of work.  They are running 6-month pilots across the world, including in Japan and the USA.  Their philosophy is based on an 80%-100%-100% rule being:

• 80% of current working hours.
• 100% of current wages.
• 100% productivity.

Employees are given flexibility on how they want to use their 20% reduction in hours.

To date, while the results of the pilots are still being analysed, they have confirmed the following:

• Improved employee wellbeing resulting in:
  • Reduced employee fatigue.
  • Reduced absenteeism.
  • Improved staff retention.
  • Resulting in reduced recruitment costs.
• While the overall preference is for employees to only work 4 days per week the pilots have indicated the following:
  • Preferred full days off are Wednesdays and Fridays.
  • Some employees prefer to take 2 half days.
  • Some employees prefer to work 5 days but work a shorter working day to allow for:
    • Dropping off and picking up their children from work thereby reducing the stresses and cost of finding and employing child minders.
    • Avoiding peak hour traffic.

4 Day Week Global is working with the EMA to push for a reduced working week in New Zealand based on improved productivity.  They are also planning to contact and discuss the 4-day working week with all of the major political parties to see if they can make it an election issue.

For more information on this subject please go to this link Day Week Global as it is very likely to become an election issue later in the year.

2 Minute Health Check

In addition to the above, if you think you are doing too many hours in your business or are generally not happy with the way your business is performing, why not take my quick 2 minute health check https://intotheblue.co.nz/business-health-check/ or contact me at john@intotheblue.co.nz or (021) 625-871.

For more information on creating or improving a business model please call John on (021) 625-871, and further more information please visit Into the Blue. 

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.

For more information on creating or improving a business model please call John on (021) 625-871, and further more information please visit Into the Blue. 

Great news for New Zealand SMEs

Business Funding Boost while Transitioning to the New COVID-19 Framework

On Friday 22^nd October Grant Robertson announced that the Government will boost the Resurgence Support Payment while we transition to the new “Traffic Light” Covid-19 Framework.  Additionally, after discussions with small and medium sized businesses, the Government is once again going to put funding into Business Advisory support for SMEs during the Covid-19 crisis.

As of Friday 12th November the Resurgence Support Payment will be increased from its current base rate of $1500 per eligible business and $400 for each full-time employee to $3000 per business and $800 per FTE, up to 50 FTEs. This enhanced Resurgence Support Payment will be available to Auckland businesses until Auckland moves into the new “traffic light framework” which, based on the current vaccination rate, is expected to be around the end of November. The Wage Subsidy will continue to be available under the current criteria while areas of the country remain at Alert Level 3

The Government has advised that it will provide final details for ongoing support under the new framework in November. Grant Robertson’s expectation is that the Wage Subsidy and Resurgence Support Payment will be reworked to a new targeted payment at the RED level of the new “traffic light framework.”

Business Advisory Planning and Support Funding has now been reinstated. Businesses will be able to apply for up to $3,000 worth of advice and planning support, and then receive up to a further $4,000 to implement that advice through the established Regional Business Partners programme. Please note that this is a 100% funding initiative that can only be used with Business Advisors registered with the Regional Business Partner Network.

Into the Blue NZ Limited provides a one-stop-shop for both business advice and planning which means that we can both advise on and implement any successfully applied for advice and planning support. Moreover, Into The Blue is registered with the Regional Business Partner Network (RPBN)..

The reinstatement of this Government subsidised support is fantastic news for New Zealand SMEs, so if you are interested in applying for it, please either:
Contact the COVID-19 Business Helpline on 0800 500 362; or
Email your enquiry to info@businesshelpline.co.nz; or
Contact me, John Raffaelli, on (021) 625-871
As part of this package, the Government has made $10 million available for mental health and wellbeing support through a programme to be designed with the EMA and Auckland Business Chamber of Commerce.

 For more information about any of the above, please feel free to contact me, John Raffaelli, either on mobile (021) 625-871 or by email at john@intotheblue.co.nz

For more information about Into The Blue NZ Limited please go to our website https://intotheblue.co.nz