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Waterfords - Where do we go from here?
Rosalind Renshaw discovers how one estate agent plans to solve
a growing problem.
One of the most difficult decisions
that a small to medium sized independent estate agent has
to make is where to take the business.
Brendan Cox, who set up his Waterfords estate agency business
on the Hampshire and Surrey borders in 1995, was facing exactly
this problem.
For Cox, there was no possibility of scaling
down the operation. Growth was the only option he wanted to
consider. Yet other agents have been deferring plans to open
new offices, and there have been some mergers.
Long term, Cox would like to
consider growing his business into a plc. Other owners of
small to medium sized businesses might equally want to devise
a long-term exit route – growing the company until it
becomes an attractive acquisition.
To achieve his own goals, Cox felt he needed some objective
help.
At a business networking
breakfast seminar, the speaker was John Fairley. Fairley had
set up, run and sold his interests in three highly successful
businesses of his own, specialising in the leisure, health,
cosmetics and spa markets. Three years ago he set up his own
company, becoming a strategic plannng consultant for small
to medium sized businesses.
“Strategic planning helps businesses take and keep control
to stay ahead of the game,” he explains. “Without
adequate planning, businesses can waste time and energy taking
the business in different directions."
Providing a framework
He had never worked with an estate agent before, but says
this was irrelevant: “Businesses are the same,”
he says. “It is professions that are different. And
all businesses are the same in that they are all very simple.
Not easy, but simple. It really doesn’t matter what
kind of business I work with.
“I never tell people how to run their own businesses,
but I do help them by providing a framework of logical methodology
that allows directors to challenge themselves.”
Fairley does not always work with companies that, like Cox’s,
are going for growth. He also works with firms that are restructuring
and consolidating, but his methods are always the same.
He works by taking the main directors of a business out of
their work environment and spending an entire day with them.
He reviews with them every aspect of the business, and also
works with each one on both their personal and business objectives.
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Surprising results
Sometimes this can produce surprising results. In one business
he worked with – not Waterfords – a director revealed
he was trying to adopt a child. None of the other directors
were aware of this, but they had realised he seemed to have
lost some of his work focus.
In the case of Waterfords, four directors met for the day
at a local hotel in May of last year. Starting at 8am, they
went all the way through until about 6pm.
“The idea is to talk to each key decision maker and
find out where they personally want to go, and where they
want the business to go,” says Fairley.
“It is better to have four objectives agreed between
them by the end, rather than have seven or eight flying around
that don’t have everyone’s agreement.
“What you want to achieve is a direction in which everyone
wants to go.”
As well as looking at personal and business objectives, Fairley
also examines other factors, such as the business’s
information systems, cash flow and its geographical location.
Marketing is also key – there is no point in growing
a business or taking it in a new direction if it cannot fit
into market conditions.
After a day such as the Waterfords one, Fairley essentially
produces an action plan to take the business forward over
an agreed time span, which could be between one and five years:
“It is one thing to sit and talk all day, but I check
the qualifications and the reality of it all.”
For Cox, this was one of the most helpful aspects: “John
produced for us a plan, together with some tasks, a marketing
strategy and a timescale. I would say that we have achieved
about 80 per cent of what was in it.”
Changes at Waterfords have included the departure of one of
the four directors who attended the strategic planning day
and subsequently realised that he wanted his own career to
go in a different direction. Fairley says this is not unusual:
“When you are growing a business, some people do realise
that actually they don’t want to be managing large numbers
of people in a few years’ time.”
The marketing has also changed dramatically. A website has
been revamped, a quarterly newsletter produced, and a new
Fine and Country division set up. Additional branches have,
however, yet to open – unfortunately, one deal fell
through at the last moment. However, Cox is in no doubt that
the expansion will happen.
The view from
above
Asked what the single most important piece of advice he had
from the strategic planning day, Cox is unhesitant: “John
told me I must work on the business, not in it. I had always
been very hands on, but with a growing business it is important
not to get too bogged down in the day to day detail.”
Cox found the day with Fairley helpful enough to arrange a
follow-up session at the end of this month. One of the issues
they will be discussing is different management styles. It
is important, Cox says, that his staff are 100 per cent united
behind him because they understand where the business is going,
and not just because he is the boss.
For Fairley, the on-going exercise is proving interesting.
“For most small to medium sized businesses, such as
Brendan’s, the first big decision is whether to go for
growth at all. But then they have actually got to do it, and
that is the hard part.
“What they need to do is make some steps up the ladder.
They don’t have to be huge steps. But you do have to
step up a rung. Making that first step is the single most
common problem.”
JFP Strategic Planning, 01344
872230
John Fairley’s top tips for business success
1. Initiate a continuous strategic planning outlook.
Give your business the luxury it deserves and take the time
to create a plan. It gives you a vehicle that you
can drive at any speed and direction you choose, because you
are in control. You become proactive and not reactive.
2. Get everyone to buy in to the vision and the plan.
3. Harness the knowledge of your staff.
4. Know your customers and prospects
5. Improve your business processes.
6. Innovate.
7. Utilise the skills and competence of your people.
8. Focus on relevant information – downside as well
as upside!
9. Reduce your overheads.
10. ACTIONS: NOT TALK!
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