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A cause to reflect

I’ve had cause to reflect lately… I am of an age where people often ask - when are you going to retire? That’s not the reason for my reflection. I love what I do. I’m told - in many different ways, I’m good at it. So why would I want to stop? Like so many, if not all SME business owners, I’ve reflected on the last two years and the challenges SMEs have had keeping their businesses going, never mind growing. The business owners I work with are no different. I am no different as a...

The Power of Conducting a Swot Analysis

Don’t under estimate the power of conducting a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis.When we are working with clients this is usually completed quite early on in the process to get an overview of a company’s potential and is a key component when developing a business strategy.Below is a reminder of how to conduct a SWOT analysis with your team to get the most out of the process.It never ceases to amaze me how powerful this process is when conducted this way. It of...

Disorganisation

One of the things that we often encounter in businesses we visit is DISORGANISATION – sometimes it’s the boss, sometimes it’s the team members individually, sometimes (but fortunately, not very often) it’s everyone. Other times it’s the office or workshop environment that creates the opportunity to be disorganised rather than the people themselves, but one way or the other, not being on top of things can be very disruptive. If this is you, or any of your team, then please read on‚ an...

What Is Your Hourly Rate?

The question of hourly rates is very relevant now. With costs increasing almost everywhere, business margins are being squeezed at a relentless rate.  If you are in a service-based industry where your revenue includes a charge for time, then this may be of some interest to you. One of the topics I often debate with clients is where does the “Hourly Rate” sit in terms of how the business is seen by the customer. Quite often it is “Front and Centre” of the business offering. When a po...

The Importance of Budgeting Every Year

The majority of business owners we work with do not like budgeting. Whether it is because of a lack of excel skills, understanding the construction of how Profit and Loss or Cashflow statement are compiled or the fact it can be boring budgeting on your own! However, budgeting is revealing and a necessary exercise. It is important that we take the time once a year (or more) to understand our “Breakeven Point” and visualise what our personal and business financial goals are, where we currently...

What’s in a margin?

Lately, most of us will have been dealing with rising costs in our businesses. In particular, the rising cost of materials. This is not a new phenomenon, but the frequency of rises on materials has hit new highs and is not showing any signs of relenting any time soon.When it comes to dealing with price increases, I often field a barrage of questions, or to be more precise, many variations on the same question. “What margin should I put on materials?”To answer the question, we need to conside...

Business Ownership: The dreams we once had

One of the first questions we ask of our new business clients is, “when you started this business, what was your dream?” You would not believe the wonderful and exciting answers we get! The sad thing is that many we talk to have “lost their dream”. The worries of business ownership get in to their head and the dream slowly fades away. So, what is our job? BRING THE DREAM BACK to reality. It sounds a bit naff and you may be thinking “Really?” But, without doubt that is what we do, eve...

A Business Owner: Fixing those issues

One of the first questions we ask of our new business clients is, “if there was one thing we could fix for you right now, what would it be?” You would be astounded the answers that we get! We all need to remember that when we go in to a new business, none of us know everything. (Although some of us may think so, he said quietly to himself). We all come from different backgrounds and different fields of expertise. Whether you are the Builder, the baker or the retail genius, we all have areas ...

The Business Advisor / Consultant Paradigm

What do The All Blacks, An Olympic Gold Medalist and Bill Gates have in common? They all employ a coach. They employ a coach to help them “Create the perfect game plan perfectly implemented.”It is no coincidence that the vast majority of businesses that win business awards employ a business advisor.The SME market (Small to Medium Enterprises) makes up 94% on New Zealand’s economy. Albeit with an incredibly high casualty rate. When surveyed, SME Business Owners advise the reason that they g...

Are you seeing what you need to see in your business?

Most people have heard the terms “Can’t see the woods for the trees” or “becoming store blind”, but do you actually know what they mean?It is a common issue with a lot of SME business owners, generally because they are too busy on fire fighting to take a step back and try and look at the business from the outside.A simple example of this might be damaged or deteriorating signage on the business’s building.  An owner can walk past this every single day and not notice it, but as s...

Sew, Mow or Row

In your business, are you the: Sewer? (The clothing type – not wastewater!!)Mower?Rower? The Sewer They are the fixers. They spend an extraordinary amount of their time (perhaps all of it) working on things in their business that are broken, or in need of repair.On the face of it, it would appear if they did not do this, then the “wheels will fall off”.  It would end in disaster.  So, to those working closely with these people, they feel grateful that the boss is always working o...

Keeping it fresh!

What a lovely weekend it was weather wise!It was so nice that it inspired my partner and me to walk Orakei Basin as we do once a month on average.As we approached the entry/exit point, I suggested that we take a new approach to what we normally do and so we entered through the exit and walked anti clockwise.We have never taken the walk from this approach and it was like a new track, the aspect changed, the view changed and we noticed differences in the inclines and declines, in summary it was li...

Cash Flow Management

One of the biggest reasons for business failure in New Zealand is not businesses not making a profit but would you believe bad cash flow management. This can be caused by several reasons. The most common are:The business is growing too quickly and does not have sufficient access to cash to fund the growth.Ignorance of cash flow peaks and trough causing poor decision making.Regardless of the reasons one thing is certain, run out of cash and your business is dead in the water. Therefore, one would...

Thrive Before Five

This may take you by surprise – a blog article by a business advisor that is NOT about business. Nor about work, or management, or profitability, time management, productivity, efficiency and so on. And especially not about a pandemic. No, I want to share a few words about child’s play….and how important it is.Recently, I listened to a radio interview with an amazing 7-year-old girl – little in age but a giant in her thought processes and the message she had to share. Molly Wright i...

Reflect to Achieve Business Success in 2022

Let’s face it, for business owners the last two year haven’t been easy. While some have consistently struggled to keep business going, managing through pivots and some hard choices, others have seen their business stay on course—or even boom. Regardless of the situation, business owners are wondering why and how they can plan for 2022 and beyond. Tempting though it maybe to throw caution to the wind and commit to a ‘she’ll-be-right-let’s-see-how-it-goes-plan’, deep down we all ...

Breton’s work as a business advisor the perfect mix of objective and invested.

"Breton’s work as a business advisor the perfect mix of objective and invested.  His advice stems from years of practical and professional experience across both corporate and small business sectors. One might be tempted to assume that this vast array of knowledge and connection is argument enough to work with him, but I would argue that the true magic of Bretons work as an advisor lies in the tailored and business-specific delivery of his knowledge.  Bretons ability to customise and...

From getting him on board at the start-up phase to continued mentoring and business support, he has been the reason for my success.

'Breton has been an absolutely vital lifeline in my business. From getting him on board at the start-up phase to continued mentoring and business support, he has been the reason for my success. Breton knows his stuff, and he is extremely well-informed across a broad range of industries. Breton has become like family, and has always supported the vision for my business, injecting his own knowledge and expertise to ensure the vision becomes reality. I honestly wouldn’t be where I am in my busine...

[Breton] was one of the best investments I made towards my business.

"My name is Ashley and I am the owner of Ashley Ellen HypnoBirthing. I have had the pleasure of working with Breton from when my business was just an idea. From the very beginning Breton has been open minded with my ideas and came up with strategies with how to make them a reality.  My favourite thing Breton has done for me was help me see the value of what I offer. My confidence was low and he helped me build that into pure belief that I can do it. He makes things easy for me to understand...

Breton has been a pivotal piece in my both my business & personal development.

"Breton has been a pivotal piece in my both my business & personal development. He has been a reliable mentor helping guide decisions and next steps within the start-up phase as well through-out the business process, listening and providing sound advice for any business opportunities or issues. Breton has a wealth of knowledge and keeps work-life balance and best practice at the forefront of his recommendations. His skillset is a valuable asset for any business owner." Victoria Fraser – Founde...

The Torment of not Sleeping

So often we talk to business owners and they tell us of their personal issues. Some of those simple things that without thought, tend to just keep going on in your life, worrying you every day.Things like not sleeping at night. Struggling to get to sleep because you just cannot “turn work off”, or struggling to stay asleep because of those worries sitting on your mind.The crazy thing is that most business owners have had this at some stage, or are having this issue right now, and withou...

Breton has given us some extremely valuable advice.

"Breton has given us some extremely valuable advice. His attention to detail and his ability to communicate succinctly has been very valuable. He has great knowledge and is very professional in all his activities with us. We have managed to achieve goals, which we have set with his help, which may not have been achievable. Definitely an asset to our business."Paul Overwater – Director / Owner – Overwater Investments Ltd (Rosetown Motel, QSPlus)...

We’ve been working with Breton for the last 6 + years and always find his Business Marketing and Consulting skills refreshing.

"We’ve been working with Breton for the last 6 + years and always find his Business Marketing and Consulting skills refreshing. I often see coaches, consultants and marketers organise massive plans for business owners – which cost them an arm and a leg – for them to sit on the shelve gathering dust. With Breton’s help this will not happen! Breton likes to get hands on with clients and if things aren’t getting done he will have the perfect outsource partner to refer the work too or he g...

The reasons why SMEs succeed with a great Business Advisor

As our world starts to try and understand how to deal with Covid, we as Business owners start to try and understand a new way of going about our daily lives, and indeed how we run our respective businesses. Small to medium business enterprises (SMEs) are the lifeblood of New Zealand and Australia, the glue that holds our world together. We are under ever increasing pressure; shut-downs, restrictions on whether we can trade or not, who is allowed in the door and who is not, ever changing Governme...

Hospitality – how do we get back to making money?

Hopefully we are all soon moving to a position where we can go back to work and start making a dollar or two to make up for the recent difficulties here in New Zealand. Yes, you are right in your thinking, some businesses have done well during the Covid crisis, but sadly others such as Hospitality are unable to get out there and make some money.Sure, some have morphed into a take-away/pick-up style but that hardly pays the rent and let us be fair, there are not many of t...

Have you got your financial plan sorted?

A financial plan is one of the most important things a small business should have. Many small businesses jump in and work week by week or month by month, but having a set financial plan and an idea of how your finances are going to look is the best way to give you confidence your business is performing.  Think of a financial plan as a road map, a guideline, a reminder of what your goals are – what you are trying to achieve in the short-term and the long-term....