Into The Blue NZ Limited provides tailored one-on-one hands-on business coaching / training to business owners and senior managers either at their workplace or other locations as requested. The business coaching / training helps business owners and senior managers to develop and or improve their business management and commercial skills to better manage their business and improve its sustainability.

This training will include:

• Business Planning – to help plan to avoid the daily chaos of “what job should be completed next?”, through to longer term planning such as future capacity issues.  
• Business Process Improvement – Improve or develop business processes that follow the critical path and eliminate waste & duplication (rework), improve business efficiency and reduce complexity.
• Financial Management – how to read Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet Statements. Reporting by business segment to better identify both segment mix changes and underperforming areas of the Business. Develop key financial drivers. These will help to make more informed financial and management decisions.
• Business Systems – identify key business systems requirements and complete a needs analysis to ascertain whether the current systems are meeting your requirements.
• Business Sustainability – helping you to recognise what needs to be done to improve the business’s sustainability in the marketplace.
• Governance (working on the Business) – developing better practices to enable you to have dedicated time to work on the Business during working hours.
• Procurement – best practices including supplier reviews.
• Resource Management Planning – being prepared and knowing when you need to purchase, replace or release resources.
• Marketing strategy – know your competitive advantage, tailor your marketing to the market conditions and increase your value proposition from a client perspective.
• Customer Satisfaction – Ensure your customers are happy. Good communications are key. Annual customer surveys to get a better understanding of what your clients think of your business.
• Human Resource Planning – Are owner / management and employee cultures aligned? Understanding of Team dynamics. Plan resources to meet customer demand. The subcontractor / employee trade-off in times of skill shortages.

The training is tailored to the specific needs of the owner and may take 40 – 80 hours to complete.

Into The Blue NZ Limited provides tailored one-on-one hands-on business coaching / training to business owners and senior managers either at their workplace or other locations as requested.  The training is to help business owners to become more aware of the importance of Business Planning and Business Plans to sustain the success of their business.  It will help them to identify threats and opportunities in their marketplace, and long-term strategies for the future direction of their business.

Business Planning helps to plan for the short-term, avoid the daily chaos of not knowing what job to do next. It helps with planning for the medium and long-term, for example knowing when you will run out of capacity and made the decisions to avoid these capacity issues. This training covers short, medium and long-term planning. It includes being able to make a plan “on the fly” (create an immediate work-around) for urgent issues, plus planning for known or possible future events such as capacity or staffing issues.

Business Plans should be a major tool in every business’s arsenal. Our training will help you to write multipurpose Business Plans that will help you to better identify your key business drivers and competitive advantage, provide robust forecasts which can help to raise capital for the purchase of new or replacement assets, develop employee incentive schemes based on business profit improvement, etc.

This training will cover:

• A self-analysis of what the Business currently does and how well it does it.
• Identifying your competitive edge / advantage.
• The Owners goal / mission for the Business.
• Business strategy to achieve the owner’s goal. The strategy, while containing stretch, must be achievable.
• Current and planned resources to meet strategy requirements.
• Market analysis including market opportunity, market structure, new services and target market size and outlook. A customer survey will help with understanding customer mindsets and behaviours.
• Competitor analysis.
• SWOT analysis covering both internal and external influences.
• Marketing strategy and budget to meet the strategy.
• Setting realistic and measurable targets including key ratios and benchmarking.
• Developing Action Plans to achieve targets.
• Financial Plan (budget / forecast) covering three+ years derived from the above analysis and strategies.
• Business continuity planning.

Training is tailored to the specific needs of the owner and will normally take 40 – 80 hours to complete.

Into The Blue NZ Limited provides tailored one-on-one hands on business coaching / training to business owners and senior managers either at their workplace or other locations as requested. The business coaching / training is to help business owners and senior managers to develop and or improve their business process skills to improve business efficiency, reduce waste including rework, remove complexity and improve the business’s sustainability. 

We will help you to develop expertise in:

• Business Process Improvement – Improve or develop business processes that follow the critical path and so eliminate duplication and waste (rework) plus remove complexity to enable improved business efficiency.
• Business Systems – identify the key business system requirements within your Business and complete a needs analysis to ensure that they are not only meeting your Business requirements current needs but are as efficient as they can be, do not include unneeded complexity and will meet your Business’s planned needs.
• Financial Management – To ensure financial systems and reporting are aligned with the Business and will easily identify both revenue mix changes and underperforming areas of the Business. Key financial drivers (KPIs) are implemented to monitor key aspects of the Business. These will all help to make more informed financial and management decisions.
• Business Planning – Enabled to help not only with future planning but the smooth day to day running of the business.
• Business Sustainability – Business planning, processes and systems will help you to recognise what needs to be done to improve your Business’s sustainability in the marketplace.
• Resource Management Planning – being prepared and knowing when you need to purchase new, replace old or release surplus resources.  

This programme will be tailored to the specific needs and availability of the business owner and may take 40 – 80 hours to complete.

Into The Blue NZ Limited provides tailored one-on-one hands-on business coaching / training to new Business owners who are GST registered, and existing Business owners either at their workplace or other locations as requested. The business coaching / training is to help new and existing Business owners to investigate their new business idea to:

1. 1. Find Out if their idea is feasible
   2. If they want to pursue their idea and
   3. Turning their idea into a reality

This training helps to develop expertise in:

• Business Sustainability – develop and write plans that outline what you want to achieve over the next 5 years including: market size, market share, barriers of entry, timetable, capital investment, competitors; working capital, SWOT analysis, etc.
• Business Planning – develop plans to avoid the daily chaos up to longer-term planning requirements.
• Business Processes – develop processes that follow the critical path to eliminate waste (rework) and reduce business efficiency.
• Financial Management – reporting by business segment identifies mix changes and performance by segment. Key business drivers help make more informed decisions.
• Business Systems – identify key business system requirements that will meet both current and future requirements.
• Capital Raising – Business Plan to include capital requirements and timings of spend. It can be used to obtain bank facilities and loans.
• Governance (working on the Business) – developing practices to enable you to have dedicated time to work on the business.
• Procurement – best practices including supplier reviews.
• Resource Management Planning – knowing when to purchase or replace resources.
• Marketing strategy – know your competitive advantage. Tailor your marketing to your target market and market conditions. Increase your value proposition from a client perspective.
• Customer Satisfaction – ensure clients are happy. Communications are key. Annual customer surveys to get a better understanding of what they think you could do better. One-on-one’s with key clients to promote your business and ensure that you are still relevant.
• Human Resource Planning – plan resources to meet demand, don’t over-staff. Know the timeline to employ and train new staff plus the subcontractor employee trade-off. Understanding team dynamics and staff culture.

Training is tailored to the specific needs of the owner and will vary by requirement.  It will typically take 40 – 80 hours to complete.

Into The Blue NZ Limited provides tailored one-on-one hands-on business coaching / training to business owners at any location as requested. The coaching / training is to help owners identify what they need to do to prepare for the day they want to leave or transition the Business from one owner to another. The training helps the owner to identify the various strategies to ensure that firstly there is a Business to sell, and secondly that they extract the maximum value possible from the sale.

In theory, the Exit Planning process should be a natural extension of your Business Plan, but for most SMEs there has been no real or significant business planning hence the need for an Exit Strategy and Succession Plan.  The Exit Process varies from the usual business planning process in that it specifically identifies key strategies that will make your business more attractive to potential purchasers (grooming) and should also make it a more profitable and more sustainable business.

This coaching / training will cover:

• The exit issues
• The exit alternatives including family succession, internal sale and external sale
• Transition options
• Market Analysis including identifying potential business sale target markets
• Business valuation methodologies and value creation
• Potential risks

The goal is to have a business that is both ready for sale and attractive to potential purchasers at a price that you are happy with when it becomes time to exit your business.

This training is tailored to the specific needs of the Business owner.  The training will vary from business to business depending on its dependence on the Business owner but will typically take 40 – 80 hours to complete.

Please note not all business owners want to sell their Business’s on completion of this process as the steps taken in grooming the business for possible sale can often lead to reduced work hours and a reinvigoration to carry on with the business for a bit longer.

Into The Blue NZ Limited provides tailored one-on-one hands-on business coaching / training to business owners at any location as requested.  This training helps owners to become more aware of the value of market analysis, planning, strategy, branding and digital enablement to sustain their business’s success.  It will help identify threats and opportunities in the marketplace, long-term strategies for the future direction of the business, and how to harness the benefits of digital enablement.

Market Analysis, Planning & Strategy

• Identify and review every sector you currently operate in plus new sectors you may operate in
• Self-analysis of how well you operate in each sector
• Analyse the effect of a possible crisis (Covid-19) on each market sector
• Implement a strategy to target the least affected and fastest recovering sectors from a major crisis
• Customer analysis and customer profiles
• Are you meeting customer expectations and ways to exceed those expectations including customer management?
• Keep an eye on what your competitors are doing
• Complete a competitor analysis which is key to keeping your competitive edge
• Developing your competitive advantage in the marketplace
• Build your Business’s resilience

Branding & Digital Enablement

• Is your brand still relevant to your products, services, and customers?
• Design a brand that is up to date and relevant
• Ensure the market knows your full product / service offering
• Design an up to date website
• Keep your website fresh and up to date including the blog page
• Write blogs / newsletters that can be sent to customers via Mailchimp
• Link digital messages and articles to social media outlets

The Training will enable you to:

• Establish an ‘agile’ marketing program / plan to align with identified channels to market
• Develop a target list and strategy for attracting new high value customers
• Develop a marketing strategy to achieve your goals – it should contain stretch but be achievable
• Current and planned resources to meet strategy requirements
• Market analysis including market opportunity & structure, new services, target market size and outlook
• Customer surveys help to better understand customer mindsets and behaviours
• Complete a marketing strategy and budget to meet that strategy
• Set realistic and measurable targets including key ratios and benchmarking
• Develop Marketing Action Plans to achieve targets

 Training is owner specific and will usually take 40 – 80 hours to complete.

Into The Blue NZ Limited provides tailored one-on-one hands-on business coaching / training to business owners at any location as requested. This training is to help owners to understand what strategy really is including the key elements of good strategy, how strategy helps to identify “your point of difference” and develop your “competitive edge.” We will also help you to identify the key items to achieving the strategy and the development of an Action Plan to implement the strategy.

Business Strategy is not your Vision, Mission Statement or Business Plans.  It is your Action Plan.

This training will help to identify the 1 or 2 critical issues to achieving your Business’s required goal(s). These are the pivot points that multiply the effectiveness of effort. You focus and concentrate action and resources on these pivotal points, as they will become your point of difference and give the biggest bang for your dollar.

A good strategy contains three key elements:

• • A Diagnosis – the key issue(s).
  • A Guiding Policy – approach to dealing with the obstacles identified in the diagnosis.
  • Coherent Action – feasible co-ordinated policies, resource commitments and actions designed to carry out the guiding policy.

The two vital components of good strategy:

1. 1. Having a coherent strategy – one that co-ordinates policies and actions. A good strategy doesn’t just draw on existing strength, it creates strength through the unity of its design.
   2. The creation of new strengths from subtle shifts in viewpoint. The most powerful strategies arise from game-changing insights.

A good strategy has two natural advantages:

1. 1. Other organisations often don’t have a strategy and don’t expect you to have one. Good strategy is as much about what a business does not do as it is about what it does.
   2. A good strategy comes from insight into new sources of strength and weakness – looking at things from a different or fresh perspective. Not every good strategy draws on this kind of insight, but those that do generate the extra kick that separates ordinary from the extraordinary.

An insight when acted on can provide a more effective way to compete – the discovery of hidden power in the situation (point of difference).

One business’s success is often at the expense of another’s failure to implement effective strategy to compete in the marketplace.

Training is tailored to the specific needs of the owner and will typically take 40 – 80 hours to complete.

Providing one-on-one advice and support on Employee Relations, Health & Wellness, Business Continuity Planning, Marketing, Digital Enablement, Finance and Cashflow Management.

Testing both the owner’s and their Business’s resilience and to provide advice and support on how to increase that resilience.

Support can take place by way of video conferencing, telephone and face to face meetings. It will also cover the effect of the longer-term restrictions being placed on New Zealand i.e. border closures, restrictions on gatherings and the impact of a reintroduction of lockdown periods.  We will work with you to come up with methods to both manage and minimise the financial impacts and stresses of running a business.

Support and advice with an aim to increase both the Owner’s and their Business’s resilience to the significant effects that Covid-19 is having on the New Zealand economy and its social fabric including:

• Human Resources – identifying key staff and cover if they cannot work, plans for staff to work from home, mission critical activities, business restructuring, etc.
• Health & Wellness – retaining contact with employees working from home. Setting up employee networks re their health & wellbeing. Helping owners to set up or join networks to ensure their own health & wellbeing. Providing a sounding board for business owners during times of stress.
• Business Planning & Business Continuity Planning – short to long-term recovery plans which include how to cope with both the immediate and longer-term issues of the impact on the economy, people’s health and social conditions. Strategies will need to be developed to reinstate critical business activities in the shortest possible time frames.
• Market Analysis and strategy – identify every sector that you currently operate in plus potential new sectors. Analysis the effect of Covid-19 by sector and implement a strategy to target the least affected fastest recovering sectors. Keep an eye on what your competitors to retain or develop a competitive edge. Build your Business’s resilience.
• Digital Enablement Strategy – Alert Levels 3 & 4 illustrated the need for a digital presence to survive whether by video conferencing re meetings; an up to date website and social media platform re sale of products and services; online newsletters to advertise your online presence, etc.
• Financial Planning – the impact the downturn on your Business. The introduction of key drivers to better understand the Business. The cost and benefits of changing market strategies, cost cutting, cashflow management, refinancing loans, staff redundancies, etc.
• Cashflow Management including refinancing loans, mortgage holidays, Government schemes, etc.