2 minute read
CEO’s message
A new financial year is an excellent time to step back from the day to day of our businesses and look at the big picture. How is your business performing? Did you grow this past year? What are your targets for the year ahead? What investments do you need to make to achieve those goals?
If you have a business plan, now’s the time to check your budgets, targets and KPIs against your actual figures. If you’ve been working towards your plan all year, hopefully this will be a rewarding task, as you see the results of all your plans and hard work in black and white, on the bottom of a balance sheet.
If you don’t have a business plan (and we know from our State of the Nation research that 27 per cent of Members don’t have a growth plan in place) then now is the ideal time to create one. You’re doing your accounts anyway, so review last year’s performance, look at your strengths and weaknesses, decide what worked and what didn’t, and think about where you should focus your efforts in the coming year. Set goals. Business growth rarely happens by accident.
Those Members who had a growth plan in place told State of the Nation they were using it to improve business efficiency (64%), increase profit margins (45%), employ more staff (42%), increase workshop capacity (40%) and win more customers (38%). Set your financial goals and develop your strategic plan. But don’t just stick it in a drawer. You have to work at it, monitoring your progress regularly against your budgets and goals.
One Member who did just that is All Ag and Auto in South Australia. You can read all about their inspirational story in this magazine, alongside a range of articles that focus on how to get more growth into your business.
I particularly recommend our article on making sure your workshop’s website is fit for purpose and generating business for you. We also have a great story about Member, Wayne Broady, who competed at the World Transplant Games in Perth in April.
Good luck with your business plan for 2023-2024. Remember, Capricorn is always on your team, helping your business to grow. We truly are stronger together.
