Experience shows that following times of growth, a subsequent reversal in fortune can result in widespread business failures. One way of heping to avoid this is to make sure that your business is running efficiently and has good cashflow management procedures in place.
Most businesses come into being because an entrepreneur has identified a niche in the marketplace - and in the early months or years there may be relatively little pressure from competitors. But your very presence in the marketplace invites competition, and before long you find yourself in a tightening market with competitors, large and small, snapping at your heels. How do you stay ahead of them?
As advisers to the business community for many years, we are in a unique position to see the various pitfalls businesses encounter at different stages of their cycle - and how many of them occur with depressing regularity.
If you were asked to list the most important assets of your business, what are the first things you would think of? Your staff? Your premises? Or perhaps your stock? One asset you should never overlook, or underestimate, is your goodwill.
