Looking Back, In a Year

March 05, 2015 at 2:42 PM

Will You Be Happy With What You've Done in 2015?

Everyone seems to be talking about goals at this time of the year. It is important, you need to maintain a freshness when running your own business, not just for you but also for your staff.

It doesn’t have to be a time-consuming affair. Take the time to sit down and consider where you would like your business to be this time next year.

I do this with my monthly mentoring clients who find it good to look forward 12 months to plan their destiny and to also look back to take note of what they have achieved.

As I say on my website;
”The purpose of setting goals is to remain focused on the reasons why you became self-employed. All energy and resources can then be targeted at those factors that are critical to achieving your goals.”

Nothing satisfies me more than to hear about businesses that are improving and doing well.  I love success stories so, here’s a little helping hand from DaltonPlan®.  Download this Business E Book – $25.00.  It helps to determine what goals to consider. It will take into account Business, Family and Recreation to name a few.

It then suggests strategies for achieving your personal and business goals.

Start the year with more focus. Write your goals down and it will keep you on track. Feel good when you achieve your goals.

If you have any questions after reading the information, go to Contact Us on our website www.DaltonPlan.co.nz and type in your request.

By Dean Dalton DBA
Director, DaltonPlan® Business Action Planning Limited

Here’s The Proof


By Gary Walmsley
Managing Director
Renovations Sorted Limited
www.RenovationsSorted.co.nz
Gary@RenovationsSorted.co.nz
07 574 1784
021 971 419

We started our Tauranga Business in 1992 building new homes along with all types of housing renovations and additions. The business grew to cover a wide range of services from window replacements and recladding to major renovations, additions and alterations. Even though I am a Registered Master Builder with extensive experience and expertise, I knew that I could be doing things smarter but wasn’t sure how to go about it.  
Back in November 2012, I met Dean Dalton from DaltonPlan and during our first meeting he showed me his business planning model and asked me what my goals were for myself, my family and the Business. Dean has been working with builders for the past 20 years and showed me how he had developed his costing model which includes business benchmarks for profitability from industry information he has gathered over that time.   After Dean explained to me how his business model worked and how we would work together over the following 12 months, I agreed to work with him to develop my business plan.  
Naturally, one of my goals was to work less hours and to make more money. I needed to be better organised. We went through a logical four step process where Dean guided me through the main components of the business plan - Marketing, Operations, Finance and Resources and showed me how they are all linked together. For example, if I change something in my Marketing it will reflect on my costings and then how I organise what extra resources I might need regarding labour, materials, and equipment.  
I found that it is best to plan ahead, as much as possible, for these changes to reduce stress levels, improve time management and eliminate mistakes.   We worked on costing out both past and new jobs using Dean’s costing spreadsheet introducing the benchmarks for profitability that he has developed particularly for the building industry. We linked this with our new branding to attract the right type of customers and we developed operations flow charts to make sure that there was no time wasted on jobs with streamlining of the processes.  
I noted that customers are certainly after “value for money” not “a cheap job done to keep the price low”. Realising that I didn’t have to win every job enabled me to stop concentrating on “price” only, and work on promoting our points of difference over our competitors.  In this way, the aim was to attract customers who are willing to pay the price for their job to be done right at the high standard of quality that then meets their goals for what they want out of their property renovation. Customer satisfaction leads to referrals.  
I have just had my end-of-year finance meeting with my accountant and he is very happy with our progress. Since 2012, working with Dean as support, I have increased my net profit income, and I have developed some new strategies that have the potential to boost it even more.  
I will continue to stick to the DaltonPlan business plan and costing model, using the benchmarks for profitability as a guide. The building industry in Tauranga has picked up and now is the time to be busy making more money, but for less stress, enabling me to spend more quality time with my family.
 
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