I was watching a movie the other night, The Adjustment Bureau. In the movie there is a group, who’s function it is, to keep people on track in order to fullfill a predetermined destiny.

The main character, however, is intent on changing his destiny. This got me thinking about the choices we make. What drives our deciesion making and how do we know if it the right decision?

When we were chidren and our parents asked, why did you do that? This was normally in response to a particularly outrageous or stupid action. Our response many times as a child, was because Little Jonny said i should. At this point, our parents would say “If Little Jonny said jump in the fire, would you?”.

So why do we make decisions that in hind sight are not great decisions? We get told by others not to do something because they tried it and it failed. Why don’t we rely on their experience? I believe, we make the best decisions based on our past experience, not someone else’s. Have you ever not made a decision because someone told you not to and kept wondering, would things have been different if i had made the decision for myself? I have! In order to make the right decision for you, you need to experience the consequences of that decision.

Simon Sinek, talks about the “Why” of a business. “People dont buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” If your decisions are made by just listening to other people, you may not even “buy into” your own decision. You will not follow that decision with the passion that is required to make the best out of it and inevitably if it fails, you can say “oh but i took the advice of Jonny”.

As Entrepreneurs we make decisions for our businesses every day. Although i do advocate making your decisions based on sound advice, this decision needs to become your decision as if you had made it due to past experience. You need to believe that it is the right decision for your business.

During strategic planning sessions, our methodology used in Reach Business Advisory asks the decision makers the question of “Why are we in business?” The answer becomes their “Purpose Statement”. All decisions made for the business from that day on needs to answer the following question. Does this decision move us towards our purpose, or take us away from our purpose. If moving towards our purpose, the decision is right for the company.

In concluding, I believe we are all destined for greatness in our on way. Make decision for you and your business based on good experiences and that will result in moving you positively towards your purpose. These decisions will always be right at that point in time. Always take responcibility for those decision and accept the outcome graciously.

We hope you find our blog relevent and food for thought. We value feedback and comments.

Happy New Year!!!

Welcome to 2017. If your 2016 was anything like mine, it was a really challenging year. As individuals at the New Years Eve party everyone is really positive about the new year ahead. We have the greatest ideas about the future, we are going to change the world. This lasts for many of us until the next morning.

Once reality kicks in, we decide that instead of changing the world we are going to work on a few resolutions that will push us in the right or a new direction. we say things like “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again” and “ a change is as good as a holiday”.

So why don’t we do the same with our businesses. “But we do a budget every year!”, i hear you say. A budget is just a monetary figure which you will use to hold yourself and your staff accountable too. Resolutions for your business should be so much more. Questions you should consider. 
– How do i want others to see my brand?
– What can my business contribute to the community?
– What additional products or services can i bring to market?
– How can i improve the moral of my employees?
– How can i improve customer relations?
– How will my business address changes in technology?

All these questions are about doing something different from what you are doing now. If you can think up some answers to these questions and put new ideas into practice, the bottom line will achieve itself. Afterall you started a business to change the world!

As we approach the end of yet another year, we find ourselves reflecting, and in many cases asking ourselves, what did we really achieve this year. In Business it is the same.

It is easy to blame the economy, strikes, staff, managers, suppliers, customers or the government for a bad year. Sometimes we, as business owners and entrepreneurs also need to take responsibility for the “BAD” year or results. If we start to reflect, we can immediately see that in many areas where we are blaming uncontrollable forces, we can actually make different decisions in order to take our businesses in a different direction.

Unfortunately, we are creatures of habit and it is difficult to change what we do, or how we do it. in tough economic times, we cannot run our businesses the way we run them in good times. Tough times are great to scale down, gain efficiencies and build better controls.

I therefore encourage you over this festive season, to reflect positively on your businesses and find areas that can be changed or adapted within your businesses to counter the current negative conditions within the market. One of your actions could be to engage with a buiness advisory, who can assist with this thinking.

Wishing you all a happy and safe festive season.

On the 18th and 19th November 2016 I had the privilege to facilitate a DISCiverY Process for a company that manufactures copper cabling.

For those reading this and not knowing what a DISCoverY Process is, it is a two day strategic session, conducted in line with the 7 Stages of Small Business Success methodology, as developed by Carl Gould.

Thie Process is a great way for businesses to gain an understanding of where they are currently in 11 areas of their buisness. In this particular session the company involved all of its management team. The 9 participants were all enaging and started the session with enthusiasm. The more engaged the participants the more ideas flow. This was also an opportunity for new management to gain an understanding of their management team.

This company has amazing staff loyalty. They are really a family in business. The company, as with many companies in our economy is going through a period of low to no growth, shrinking customer base and price pressure. In many companies this would result in high staff turnover, yet this company, due to its family nature, with no common family members, has a low staff turnover.

This is got me thinking, the current trend of employees is to move jobs as much as 2 or 3 times in a 2 to 4 year period, depending on which literature you read. So what makes a business able to maintain such loyalty? The key seems to be family thinking in a buisness.

Employees in Family thinking businesses;
– work for the group, there is no I or me in the family thinking business;
– realize that their contribution is not only making a diffierence to themselves;
– consider their own families as an extension of their business life;
– help each other to “get the job done” regardless of their own finuction in the business; and
– are able to hold each other accountable.

I am sure there are many more but these five resonate the most with my experiences too.

In conclusion, I believe, Family thinking businesses, are more likely to weather tough times as in our current economic conditions than businesses who do not employ this type of thinking.

I gained my Business Advisory experience through my training as an audit clerk at Deloitte and further as an audit manager at Deloitte and Mazars.  I became a partner in the Mazars audit practice in 2012.  Being a partner is much like being a business owner.  The buck stops with you, for everything.  Most of my clients were and still are small to medium sized business, who have a passion for what they do and are wanting to grow.  In 2015 and 2016 I began working in the Learning and Development space, through the Mazars Academy.  I had already been the Training officer with Mazars for more than 10 years. I have a passion for helping people achieve.  Through the Mazars Academy i met Carl Gould, author of “The 7 Stages of Small Business Success”.

I became accredited in his Business Growth methodology and am currently using this in Reach Business Advisory.

I left Mazars and the Mazars Academy in August 2016, to pursue Reach Business Advisory.

Reach Business Advisory was started due to the growing need in the South African economy to assist small to medium sized businesses with growth and start up strategies.  We believe that to be an entrepreneur is to be a pioneer.  You are the inspiration to many school leavers and business people alike.  It is scary, not knowing where the next paycheck is coming from.  It is rewarding, when it works, the payoff both financially and emotionally is huge. It is an adrenelin rush, this makes you push the boundaries.

Without entrepreneurs and small to medium sized businesses, the economy will not grow as rapidly as we need it to.  Big business is rationalizing, automating, and investing in artificial intelligence.  Big business is not creating jobs as the economy needs.  You, entrepreneurs and small business are going to be the backbone of the economy going into the future.