Discover the Top 10 Tips - Business Plans

Discover the TOP 10 tips on how to prepare your business plan. Your business plan should provide you with a blueprint for the operation of your business and help you monitor progress against your objectives. Learn how.

The Manager's Club

DAW Consulting has joined The Manager's Club; a business resource that allows managers and owners to share their vies on all things business.

Read David Willetts' published articles

Why Mentors are so Important

Many of us will recall people who have offered information and advice to help us work through problems in the past.

We may not have considered that person to be our mentor simply because we did not call it mentoring at the time. Our parents would be perhaps our first mentors but now we are business owners do we still not have a need for advice and guidance to overcome business problems?

Why mentors are important.

10 Tips How to Avoid Financial Disaster

The business continues to grow, new customers gained, orders are taken for the next generation of products that will secure the future – or is the future clouded with some nagging uncertainty? On the surface all is fine but elsewhere things are not happening in the way they did a short time ago.

But what steps can you take to give you greater comfort?

Read 10 tips on how to avoid a financial disaster for your business.

Business Control, cash management, honesty, re-engineer your processes .......

DAW Consulting - A Case Study

Open Advantage, a Birmingham UK independently funded vendor-neutral centre specialising in Open Source software, is dedicated to helping business get the most out of Information and Communication Technology using Open Source software.

The DAW Consulting website was written using Joomla Open Source software with the help of Open Advantage and NB2BC, based at Warwick University campus.

A case study has now been written detailing the history behind the launch of the third generation DAW Consulting website and can be read on the Open Advantage site.

Financial Management Consultant

DAW Consulting will work with the manangement team to identify and deliver data on which robust decisions can be taken. As Financial Management Consultant, DAW Consuting will assist your business in implementing your business strategy through agreeing functional and individual targets and a timing plan for implemenation.

Actions to Take to Develop Your Business Exit Strategy

As a business owner if you wish to maximize the value of your business at your targeted exit date a Business Strategy must be formulated, implementation of plans agreed and implemented. You will be advantaged to demonstrate a proven and improving track record of success to substantiate your stated business value, rather than only relying upon anecdotal evidence of future expectations.

Read the article.

Does Your Finance Director Meet Your Expectations?

The role of the part time Finance Director or the full time equivalent may vary from organization to organization.

Preparing and reporting the financial numbers may be an obvious responsibility of the FD, but as a business owner what do YOU expect from your part time or full time Finance Director?

Do you know what you should expect from your Finance Director?

The free to use check list will allow you to see if your part time finance director or full time FD is meeting the responsibilities of the position.

Finance Director Check List

"DAW Consulting providing part time finance director, financial management consulting, mentor and NED services to help business owners improve business performance, profitabilty and cash flow."

Where to find a Part time Finance Director?

Visit DAW Consulting for more information on employing a part time FD.

How a Part Time Finance Director Can Help a Failing Business

The business environment will continually change and the role of the part time Finance Director must also change to meet the new demands of business.

Whilst it is only recently that employing a part time Finance Director has come more into vogue that in itself reflects the changing needs of business.

The part time Finance Director is expected to be more than a keeper of accounts but also to be an integral part of the management team contributing to the success of the business, much as a full time finance director would.

Typically this may include active participation in planning, strategy development, fund raising, management information systems, quality management systems, preparing for exit, training and so on and will afford the part time finance director the opportunity of working with his/her peers on making good informed decisions that will improve business performance and profitability.

For the owner of a troubled business without in-house financial expertise, a qualified part time finance director should provide the skill to help address the most common causes of business failure, particularly when the business owner is too involved with daily problems to objectively recognize that the business may have entered a period of potential terminal decline.

What are the common characteristics of business failure? How can a part time Financial Director help?

Some businesses fail due to exceptional circumstances, however, the more frequently found causes of failure include:

- No expert help readily available to advise the business owner.
The owner may have previously resisted appointing a mentor or part time finance director, consequently the owner’s skill set may be inadequate to address the problems of the business and a deteriorating business position may become exacerbated. A ‘problem denial’ phase may be experienced, however, it is rarely recognized that the cost of being proactive is far less than the cost of re-acting to problems.
- Debtors are slow in making payments.
Good cash management is jeopardized and the business owner must devote more time to cash collection activities or the risk of bad debts will become real.
- High staff turnover.
If good staff cannot be retained operational costs will increase and the lack of work continuity may adversely impact the business performance. Should the reason for high staff turnover not be fully understood by the owner, the trend should be taken as an indicator that areas for improvement exist within the organization.
- Lost customer accounts.
If customer accounts are lost and the reasons why are not established and corrective action taken, the business will suffer a continual downward trend. Often losing a customer is viewed as an expected event.
- Selling price pressure.
Competitive pressure on selling prices will always be evident, however, the business may fail to demonstrate the uniqueness of its proposition and consequently be only able to sell on price. In such circumstances the business must reduce its cost base to compensate for the lost revenue or suffer decline; thus reducing the value of the business.
- Reluctance to change – lack of skills.
The present technological based environment in which businesses operate dictates that the owner must keep abreast of new technologies and train staff to meet new challenges. Often there is inadequate training of staff and a reluctance to acquire external expert skills that lead to long term concerns.
- Poor management of Working Capital.
In addition to increasing debtors, inadequate control of inventory and other current assets will increase costs of the business and reduce the liquidity of the organization.
- Business growing too fast.
Fast growth in business may create a dangerous situation unless adequate liquidity and skills are present within the business to be able to discharge all increased commitments efficiently. Often the business owner fails to understand the interdependencies between the functions within the business. Rapid sales growth, unless managed and all business functions adequately resourced to meet the increase, may potentially cause failure in the business.

The qualified part time finance director will be able to work with the business owner and contribute in:
- taking a proactive approach in the management of the business
- evaluating the business risks
- taking responsibility for the preparation of management information
- and taking informed decisions based upon fact.

The role of the Part time Finance Director will vary in different environments, however, the import and expectation that the incumbent is keeping abreast of changing legislation and management trends, enhancing the appropriate skill sets of staff and is an active team player will be of great importance.

The business owner can now be comforted that professional accounting bodies mandate that members do carry out an ongoing programme of Continual Professional Development (CPD), which helps the qualified part time finance director to meet the needs and expectations of the business owner and further enhances the value of the part time Finance Director within small and medium sized organizations.

The Role of the Part Time Finance Director

The business environment will continually change and the role of the Part time Finance Director must also change to meet the new demands of business.

Indeed it is only in recent years that employing a Finance Director in a part time capacity has become more prevalent, and in itself reflects the changing needs of business.

The part time Finance Director is expected to be more than a keeper of accounts but also to become an integral part of the management team contributing to the success of the business.

Typically this may include active participation in planning, strategy development, fund raising, management information systems, quality management systems, preparing for exit, training and so on and will afford the part time finance director the opportunity of working with his/her peers on making good informed decisions that will improve business performance.

The role of the Part time Finance Director will vary in different environments, however, the import and expectation that the incumbent is keeping abreast of changing legislation and management trends, enhancing appropriate skill sets and is an active team player has never been so great.

The business owner can be comforted that professional accounting bodies mandate that members do carry out an ongoing programme of Continual Professional Development (CPD), which helps the qualified part time finance director to meet the needs and expectations of the business owner.