THE CHALLENGE

We’ve always been cautious and it’s about time we took some risks. Being brave is hard. Let’s put a team together internally and look at the deal. We should take 3 months to assess the deal on the table and fully understand the implications.

The plan is set for your own business. Stay focused. The economy is likely to be slow for some time - we can’t afford to waste time, resource and expose ourselves to risk chasing opportunities like this.

If the supplier is strategic we are going to have to look at the deal at any price. This may also help us understand the margins in the supply chain and potentially limit supplies for competitors and/or put their prices up.

IT is in charge of systems, get them to decide. We can’t waste sales time right now. We already have a new technology project looking at quotes and proposal writing, they don’t need another one - it’ll be too distracting.

Sales needs to own the CRM system. Let’s agree the objectives and outcomes, and look at operations before we talk to anyone else. Start a steering committee and get them to report suggestions to the board in 1 month’s time.

CRM affects everything we do. Let’s get people from every department and make sure we lay out the process, the handoffs and the issues. It will take 6 months, but we have no choice - it will avoid a sea of pain in the future.

Selling the expenses tool to existing customers could generate £0.5m new sales a year if two-thirds of customers buy it - that’s a 12.5% growth in sales this year.

Stemming churn is more important. Let’s offer the expenses tool free to existing customers to make the software more sticky and improve retention.

Churn is the silent killer in any business, but churn will always happen. HR is already sticky, let’s offer the expenses module free of charge to new prospects as a product promotion to drive new customer acquisition.

Is it recruitment? Or is it that we just don’t pay enough and have the right benefits? Let’s do a staff satisfaction survey and try and find out what’s happening.

Is it recruitment? Or do we have a problem with how we manage and who is managing? Let’s set up exit interviews.

Is it recruitment? Let’s review our candidate selection process and criteria. Let’s create a dialogue with staff and find out what’s really going on.

Writing a culture code to explain the DNA of the company they already work in is a bit odd. Get marketing to design something simple to look good for new starters and to attract new candidates.

Defining and communicating our culture - the what it is that makes us the company we are is a central part of any business. Let’s start by asking our people what they think it is?

Blacklivesmatters is something for the individual and not for a company to have an opinion about, but a Culture Code is a good idea. Let’s get one of the founders to define it and share it with the staff.
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We need to innovate the customer experience. Just opening an online shop and doing deliveries is not a pivot. We need to add value to the offer we make to customers to get their attention - that way we build a movement not just a few sales.

We need to go back to how we used to do it. We can’t pivot away from a business model just because of 12 months of chaos. The company has been going for 35 years, it will come back. Let’s do some more marketing for the online store.

Most sales have been from word of mouth. Let’s understand what the potential could be and look at more options to ramp up our awareness through marketing.

Sales is not the most immediate problem. However, cash flow is! This needs dealing with immediately. Review cash collection processes, and start making debtor days a daily reporting metric.

Slowing sales will naturally have an effect on cash. However, when distributors like builders’ merchants fall behind on payments, it’s an indicator of a general slowdown. Consider offering longer credit lines to increase sales volumes and talk to the bank about extending our overdraft.

The new high is possibly an indicator of a problem getting worse. Lets proactively go out and ask our customers to sense check what’s going on in the market, as well as, start an assertive push on accounts receivable.

Share schemes don’t motivate people. I’ve built this business and taken all the risk. The way we remunerate people is good - they earn above-market rates already.

I don’t want to give away my shares and control of the business, we’ve thrived up until now without. This indicates a deeper problem with motivation that I need to explore further.

We should do this. People in this business are the sales team, the product and the customer success people. It would be good to get everyone invested in the business’s success.

Offices are here to stay. It’s ok if you have some time WFH but we need to build our culture and that requires people to be together in the office. Let’s keep the office.

We have proven that everyone is just as productive WFH through the “lockdown”. We don’t need an office. We should cut costs given the chance to do so. Let’s exercise our break clause and focus on better systems for people WFH.

We recognise the new reality that people can work well at home but do need to get together as well in the office. A hybrid could work for us. Part-time in the office and part at home. Let's look for a smaller office designed for this purpose and rethink our whole people policy.

I’m not going to just carry on. There is always a reason not to take action - too busy, too slow. I need to be healthy to do well. If I’m not healthy and mentally fit, there might not be a business.

Being an entrepreneur is all about taking the work when it’s there. It’s the way we built the company and I’m not going to walk away now we’re getting back on our feet. I will start.

Explain to your co-founder everyone in the company needs to give health some thought - not just the owners, but the whole staff. You work to persuade the co-founder on the merits of a staff-wide wellness programme.