Many people run successful and efficient businesses, but don’t take the time to sit back and ask: ‘What is actually driving the value in my business?’

Understanding those value drivers and focusing energy on them is the difference between having a business that runs efficiently today, and one that builds value over time.

Customers are key drivers of business value, but – as we know – not all customers are created equal. The following infographic contains 4 questions designed to assist you in assessing the make-up and value of your customer base.

Topics: Customers and Clients, Customers, Business Value, business management, small business, infographic

Last month I wrote a blog about how to avoid losing key staff when buying a business.

In this blog I'm sharing advice on how to manage another critical risk when buying a business: customers and suppliers.

This risk relates to key customers and/or suppliers taking flight from the business you’ve purchased in the early stage of the transfer.

In doing your due diligence it’s very wise to look at both supplier and customer concentration risk.

Topics: business advice, Buying a business, risk management, Customers, Suppliers, Due diligence

When running a business, we all know it's important to have happy customers, but it's equally important to ensure we have 'valuable' customers.

Our new cheat sheet provides 4 steps to identifying and building a valuable customer base.

Step one is to determine the quality of your current customer base.

If you find quality is lacking in some areas – for example client diversity or payment times – follow the next steps to help you create a deliberate strategy for attracting valuable customers.

Topics: business advice, business development, Running your business, Customers, Business Value

Your customer base is a critical component of your business’s value.

So how do you determine whether your business has a ‘quality’ customer base or not?

You can start by considering the following questions:

Topics: Advice, Customers

From the JPAbusiness Strategic Business Insights blog archives

In this blog we examine the next three categories in the JPAbusiness Business Transfer Checklist: Customers, Suppliers and Stock.

Customers

In our previous blog we talked about the financial issues related to customers, but there is a separate issue regarding customers and that is ‘relationships’.

A business may have 50 regular and loyal customers and yet 15 of those may represent 60% of the sales on a regular basis.

Topics: Business transfer, Customers, Suppliers, Inventory

 

There is no reward without risk...

Risk and return are two sides of the same coin and most people looking to purchase a business, if it’s not simply to replace full-time employment, should be targeting a return of between 20% and 50% on their investment over time, depending on the business and other factors.In our experience, the risks associated with business purchases fall into three categories:

1. People
2. Customers, Suppliers and Market Dynamics
3. The Value Exchange

Topics: Buying a business, Starting a business, Advice, BME, Staff, Suppliers, Customers, Business Value

I’m currently overseas enjoying some rest and relaxation.

As well as relaxing, this trip is also a time to smell the roses and get some perspective on what’s happening in the world of business, industry, technology, people and culture.

Following are a few observations from my travels in the US:

Topics: Customers, Customers and Clients, Running your business, Advice