I have had the opportunity and pleasure of working with a broad range of businesses across many different industries, countries and stages of development.
It’s a hugely rewarding and interesting part of what I do as no two challenges or solutions are the same so, as someone who thriveson variety in my life, I am never ever bored!
However, there are some common themes that seem to recur regularly and are universal to almost every business that I encounter. The biggest head-scratcher of all these themes is always the best use of funds. This doesn’t matter whether you’re a multinational corporation looking to step on, a SME looking to step up or a backroom business looking to start up, the use of funds will always be an important deliberation.
There’s no right or wrong way to approach this conundrum but I am always amazed to come across businesses that haven’t yet established a set of principles to help them make decisions when it comes to spending. As a business owner myself this is something that I have had to develop so I want to share my principles with you now and how they can be used practically:
If you can beg, beg and repay favours.
If you can borrow, borrow and return as you found it.
If you can hire, hire efficiently.
If you can outsource, outsource in partnership not transactionally.
If you need to buy, buy with the best terms you can.
We have worked with a couple of small businesses in the chocolate industry to develop our own solution to help other businesses to start-up smart which we call our Chocolate Factory in a Box.
The delivery is simple: it’s a shipping container with a fully functioning chocolate factory to allow the business to create a suite of incredible chocolate goodies. T
his removes a huge amount of expense, risk and time for the businesses and is much more cost-effective than renting a shell of a warehouse.
The use of funds will continue to be an area of concern for all businesses but hopefully, as we collaborate, more and more businesses will be in a position to make smart decisions and investments without jeopardising future development.
David.