2017 - Reflections on a big year and our top five insights
2017 has been a big year for ValueMaker. We’ve had the privilege of meeting and working with some inspiring businesses. Organisations who have a fantastic blend of products, people and services and are brimming with growth potential.
While every business that we have met over the last 12 months has been different, we have seen that they are
unified by a series of common themes that have directly influenced their performance. During the year we blogged about the challenges these organisations face and how business leaders can strategically overcome them.
Our top five insights for 2017 are as follows:
Business owners rarely understand their financials as well as they think they do.
In 9/10 businesses that we have worked with, we have found something material in their numbers that has changed their view on the real position.
As a result of the above, all decision making in the business is slightly inaccurate
If you don’t truly know where you are in your business journey, you can’t make informed, strategic decisions - undermining the energy in your business and slowing growth.
The simplest thing to do to impact growth is also proving the hardest thing to do – businesses consistently doing what they say they will.
It’s easy to commit to actions, but we see many often fail to follow through. Simply delivering the right actions, in the right timescales, can make a radical difference between mediocre growth and step change growth.
The behaviours of leaders has a direct impact on the speed and level of growth.
This may sound like an obvious one, but it is critical. We have worked with many business leaders this year and those who are the most open to change, willing to listen and whose behaviours are consistent, are the ones that have delivered the strongest results and are the ones we are most likely to help succeed.
Having somebody qualified to give you a view on the business from the outside and act as a critical friend is invaluable.
You don’t know what you don’t know. An unbiased outsider looking in can move the needle for your company like nothing else. As people who have grown, bought and sold businesses, we believe we are well qualified to help business owners achieve their ultimate ambitions.
2017 also saw the re-launch of ValueMaker’s branding and website and we feel proud that our own personality is better represented than ever before.
We consider that our success at ValueMaker is based on good business karma. Good business karma is founded on trust between us and the people and businesses that we have the pleasure of meeting.
And at all times for our team, trust comes before the commercial aspect. We want to know that we can truly help a business achieve transformational growth and we want business owners to believe that we can make a genuine difference to the likelihood of them reaching their growth and investment goals.
People, trust and better relationships lead to great achievement.