How Have You Done So Far? Take Our Business Health Check Exercise
When was the last time you had a stock-take of your business? Are you about to do a strategy review for your business? Here’s an exercise to quickly allow you to take stock of your business, take our business health check exercise and see how you are doing:
Take stock of your business achievements, your resources and current market position, before you decide on your future direction. Do this (very) regularly.
Business Health Check Exercise
Financial metrics
| Financial | Last year | Previous year |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | ||
| Gross profit | ||
| Net profit | ||
| Your own salary | ||
| Total promoters/management team remuneration |
Customer Metrics
| Customers | Last year | Previous year |
|---|---|---|
| Number of customers | ||
| Average purchase per customer | ||
| Average purchase per customer — units of product/service |
Sales Metrics
| Products/services | Last year | Previous year |
|---|---|---|
| Percentage of total sales accounted for by each of the business’ top three products/services: • Product/service 1 • Product/service 2 • Product/service 3 |
||
| Number of products made/hours of services supplied for each of the business’ top three products/services: • Product/service 1 • Product/service 2 • Product/service 3 |
||
| Average cost of each unit of product made/cost of service provided per hour for each of the business’ top three products/services: • Product/service 1 • Product/service 2 • Product/service 3 |
Financial Metrics
| Assets and liabilities | Last year | Previous year |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed assets | ||
| Cash | ||
| Stock on hand | ||
| Money due by customers | ||
| Money due to suppliers | ||
| Less Borrowings | ||
| Total Net Worth of Business | ||
| Equity contributed by promoters and management team | ||
| External equity | ||
| (External equity as a % of total equity) | ||
| Profits retained | ||
| Total Shareholders’ Funds |
Other Metrics
| Other measures | Last year | Previous year |
|---|---|---|
| Number of staff (including promoters and management team) | ||
| New products/services introduced | ||
| Percentage of total sales accounted for by new products in first year | ||
| New customers won | ||
| Percentage of total sales accounted for by new customers in first year |
Can you break down your sales:
By Product/service?
| Product/ Service | Sales last year | Past growth: Good/poor? | Margin last year? | Prospects: Good/poor? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
By Customer type?
| Customer type | Sales last year | Past growth: Good/poor? | Margin last year? | Prospects: Good/poor? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
By Region?
| Region | Sales last year | Past growth: Good/poor? | Margin last year? | Prospects: Good/poor? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being very important or good performance), which of the following factors are important in your market and how is your business performing with regard to them?
| Importance in market | Performance of business | |
|---|---|---|
| Product features (specify what these are) | ||
| Quality of products | ||
| Range of products | ||
| Customer service | ||
| Marketing | ||
| Price | ||
| Location | ||
| Delivery | ||
| Image | ||
| Other (specify what these are) |
- Why do your customers buy from you? How do you know this?
- Are you capable of meeting quick changes in demand?
- Are your suppliers able to help you to meet sudden changes in demand?
- Are you dependent on one major supplier for any of your top three products/services?
- Are you dependent on one major customer for sales of any of your top three products/services?
- How do you keep informed of new developments on your industry?
- How do you implement those new developments?
- Are you developing new products/services?
How do the promoters and management team spend their time (week/month), on average?
| NAME/TITLE: | NAME/TITLE: | NAME/TITLE: | NAME/TITLE: | NAME/TITLE: | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
HOURS |
HOURS |
HOURS |
HOURS |
HOURS |
|
| Sales | |||||
| Production | |||||
| Meeting customers | |||||
| Administration | |||||
| Doing/learning new things | |||||
| Other activities (specify what these are) | |||||
| Total | _____________ | _____________ | _____________ | _____________ | _____________ |
Why is your business successful?
However you measure success, how would you measure your business on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being very successful)?
This exercise sets the current scene for your business and identifies the starting point for your journey of growth. Completing it improve your understanding of your own business and perhaps helped you to look at your business with new insights.
Over to you now. Did you find this business health check exercise useful? Tell us in the comments below.
Source: business-achievers.com
