(13 Topics)
1. Benchmarking for Profitability
The
importance of benchmarking is growing worldwide as increasing numbers of
business owners and managers discover how valuable it is as a tool for
improving profitability. As owners of their own businesses your clients need
to understand what benchmarking is and how it works.
Benchmarking is a very broad topic, so this topic concentrates on what it is
rather than how to do it. Your clients will also gain an understanding of
what it can do for their business and hear about what it’s done for others.
This BGR topic is about
business interruption and how to manage the risks that can cause it. It’s an
important concept that every owner of a small business needs to understand.
Most proprietors have thought about the possible effects on their business
of a disaster like a fire or flood. Some even have insurance against
specific events like cyclones and earthquakes.
But that’s not the same as planning for a Business Interruption. The
difference between planning for a disaster and planning for a business
interruption can be the difference between recovery and going out of
business.
2. CRM-
Managing the Customer
Relationship Management
CRM stands for ‘Customer Relationship Management’. It’s about knowing your
customers and using this knowledge to form profitable relationships with
them. We hear a lot about ‘CRM’ these days but most of us don’t really know
what it means. This updated BGR topic will put you in the picture of what
CRM is and how it is being applied in businesses.
What is new about CRM is the development of software applications that can
be the basis of a customer relationship management system in any business.
This BGR reviews how these systems can be made to work, and why they often
don’t.
You'll see how CRM can deliver a profitable focus on customers that can
really pay off for any size of business. The BGR also covers the steps of
developing and implementing a CRM strategy and what it can and can’t
achieve. You'll also learn how to tell if you’re getting value out of a CRM
system and which are the most important metrics to monitor.
3. Creating
A Sales System
Many business owners don't focus on their sales
function - mainly because they aren't comfortable selling and prefer to
concentrate on what they do best. But what would be the financial impact on
your business if every team member could double his or her sales? We look at
the sales process in a way that will break it down into the nuts and bolts,
and make it less mysterious and daunting.
This topic covers:
-
The sales function and why some people are not comfortable with it
-
Why it is ultimately an internal process that you must systemize like everything else in your business, and how to do this
-
Some key selling strategies
-
Ways to manage the sales process
4.
Dealing With Customer Complaints
Statistics vary, but for every customer who makes a
complaint, you are likely to have between twenty and thirty dissatisfied
customers who say nothing. Or at least, they say nothing to you, but they're
happy to tell other people. In fact, customers are likely to tell between
eight and ten people when they are dissatisfied. And each of these is likely
to pass the word on to several others.
There is a positive side to complaints however: they can be used to improve your business processes AND even cement customer loyalty. Complaints are a valuable resource. They provide low-cost feedback and if you handle customer complaints well, you can confirm customer loyalty. Good complaint resolution can actually assist in turning even customers who have a complaint into long-term clients who will recommend your business to others. This topic will show you how to handle complaints effectively and use them to actually improve your business.
4.
Developing Quality
Assurance Processes
SME owner/managers may think they don't have time or money to develop
complex quality assurance processes, but in fact quality improvements need
not be overly expensive or involved – less in the longer term than the cost
of NOT introducing them. Because, in the long term, quality assurance
practices are the best way to bolster the bottom line since they achieve
delivery of the highest value to the customer with the lowest costs to the
company.
This seminar outlines the basic argument for introducing a quality practices
review and provides a step-by-step guide on how to develop and introduce a
quality assurance system.
6.
Disaster Planning And Business Recovery
The best time to respond to a disaster
is before it happens. A relatively small investment of time and money now
may prevent severe damage and disruption of life and business in the future.
Ask yourself: what if the worst happened to your client's business? Would
they survive if the business were closed down for weeks, months, or perhaps
for an entire revenue season? What can they do to maximize their chances of
survival?
This seminar explains the steps to take to reduce the risk of suffering a
disaster by describing how to:
-
Protect facilities
-
Maintain business operations after a disaster
-
Backup critical documentation
7. Improving Systems and Processes
All procedures in a business, no matter how well
managed, are capable of improvement. And in the SME environment that usually
means starting with systemizing processes so the owner/manager can stop
working IN, and get the opportunity to start working ON.
This topic looks first at how to determine which processes to systemize to
provide some breathing space, and then at the basic techniques which can be
used to analyze processes (plot processing and flow charting), improve their
efficiency and encourage their adoption by the team.
It concludes with a look at how technology can be used as an enabler to
provide new levels of efficiency and service provision.
8.
The IT
Challenge
Many small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are not taking advantage of
the very real benefits IT could bring to them. Those that aren’t are losing
their competitive edge. This seminar starts by acknowledging the very real
challenges many SME owners face in appreciating just what IT could do for
their business and the equally real problem of understanding IT jargon and
finding a supplier who can speak their language.
It sets out to make owners more comfortable about facing the IT challenge by
explaining the framework for assessing what IT they might profitably
implement (developing an IT strategy) and the policies and procedures they
will need to put in place to ensure it works effectively, such as various
data security measures and an acceptable use policy (an IT operating plan).
9. Key Performance Indicators -- Tools for Business Performance Management
KPIs are the measure of a business' success at
achieving its operational and financial goals. When KPIs move in the
right way you know the business is operating successfully. When they move in
the wrong way you have a warning that something isn't going according to plan. But
what are KPIs? How do you decide which you need to track? How do you go
about putting a KPI system in place in your business and how do KPIs relate
to benchmarking?
This seminar has the answers and demonstrates how KPIs can be used to the
benefit of any business.
10. Managing Risk With An Internal Control System
While
small and medium-sized businesses may question the need for a set of
internal controls, when they are presented with the options – inefficient
operations, leaving themselves open to theft and fraud, incorrect financial
records and fines for non-compliance with laws and regulations among them –
putting a sensibly designed internal control system in place doesn’t seem
like such an unreasonable idea.
In fact the question becomes, can they afford not to?
This seminar discusses why, for small businesses with their limited
resources, the protection provided by internal controls is particularly
important. It covers the types of control mechanisms available, how to
select the appropriate ones for various types of risk, and how to develop a
set of controls suitable to their business’ size and risk exposure.
11. Protecting
Businesses from Occupational Fraud
Occupational fraud, the deliberate misuse or
misapplication of the employing organization’s resources or assets’, is
reported as being widespread among small to medium-sized businesses (SMEs).
In fact SMEs are particularly vulnerable given their limited management
resources; fraud starts with an owner who is too trusting or too busy
chasing business to be able to also exercise vigilance over internal
processes.
Fraud can have devastating effects on a firm’s finances, its reputation and
the wellbeing of the team and managers who have been its victim.
This seminar covers the reasons why SMEs are particularly vulnerable to fraud
and the need to implement an internal control procedure to provide the
necessary checks and balances that will prevent or expose fraud. It also
covers creating a fraud aware culture. There is a checklist against which
attendees can assess how fraud proof their business is currently.
12.
Time Management
Effective time management is about increasing your
personal efficiency in achieving goals. The benefits are not only personal
though, from a reduced stress level, but it means your business will be more
efficiently run as well. It's about getting control, making sure that you
are not tyrannized by a series of apparently urgent tasks. It's about giving
the right proportion of your time to planning for the future as well as
day-to-day tasks.
Time management involves honing two business skills in particular - organizing and prioritizing - by developing a set of techniques that ensure you have clear, uninterrupted time to concentrate ON the business.
This topic provides solutions to help you get ahead of the game by prioritizing your tasks according to importance and systematizing your routines for dealing with them. It also includes tools for measuring levels of procrastination and perfectionism and provides strategies for dealing with these in the work place.
13.
Working ON Rather Than IN Your Business
Most businesses fail or never reach their full
potential because their owners spend too much time doing the work that the
business does, rather than managing and growing it. Working ON rather than
IN your business is the difference between your business just providing you
with a job versus helping you attain your personal goals. Are you working IN
your business, in the midst of it all and trying to handle it all and be all
things to everybody?
An important step to breaking this cycle and start working ON your business is to simply develop systems for everything. This topic will help you to see your business as a series of processes so that you can create a "the way we do it here" manual. This means developing systems, processes, documentation and team member training to ensure your business runs smoothly, consistently, and most importantly, without you.