What Successful Businesses Do?

I was chatting to a client of mine’s retired parents recently.  We were having a conversation about the growth and success of the dairy farming business over the years that their son is now running successfully.  As an aside, to be successful doesn’t mean relentless expansion, it is getting the business to successfully achieve the aims and objectives of the partners. 

They concluded the key actions to success were as follows:

1. Buying assets e.g. land and managing them with other people’s money and other peoples time and adding other people’s land in form of rent.
2. Adding value to owned assets, e.g. developing buildings, property etc.
3. Taking perceived large risks early enough in the life of youngest partner, in this case the son was made a partner in mid-late 20s.  The youngest partner was exposed to larger business decision making at an early age.
4. Son also worked off farm before coming home so experienced how he was managed well and badly and experienced different farming systems.
5. Taking advice from consultants, accountants, vets, agronomists, planning consultants and other professionals reduced what looked like large risks to smaller risks.  In effect they have managed risk with the help of professionals.
6. The partner’s goals and objectives are aligned and communicated, and a succession plan was put in place early in life.

Out of all the above points, it was the employing professionals with skills that the partners didn’t have to reduce perceived risk by budgeting, by stress testing scenarios, and by offering an outside view devoid of emotion, which was highlighted by the older generation as being key to the business success.  I am not blowing my own trumpet here as this is music to a consultant’s ear.  I have only been involved in more recent years in this business, so the existing professionals and previous consultants need to take the credit.

Do you use an outside expert to sit in on your businesses meetings to help make decisions, to question what you are doing to see if what you are doing today enables the business partners to achieve their long-term business objectives?  If not, why not?  We as consultants running our own business use a consultant.  Otherwise, we can be just like any other business, too busy working IN the business without the time to work ON the business.

If you don’t use a consultant why not?  Contact Gerard at gerardfinnan@fcgaric.com or Tel: 07976 426420 in confidence today, to see what a fresh pair of eyes and ears can do for your business, without any obligation initially.