Much has been documented about the boom times of the last decade and in particular the subsequent spectacular crash which first manifested itself towards the end of 2007. Hardly a business or indeed individual in the country has been able to avoid the impact of same in some way on their daily life and routine. Individuals experienced unemployment, reductions in wages, increases in taxes, decimation of pension funds, high increases in both energy costs and the daily cost of living and often had to deal with unsustainable levels of debt which had built up in the periods prior to the crash. Businesses experienced significant reductions in their sales and consequently in their ability to generate profits. They also faced increased taxes, reductions in bank finance coupled with increased finance costs, increasing energy bills and a lack of opportunity in the export market. Everyone was finding themselves squeezed financially from many angles. The focus for everyone became survival and almost every business and individual had to make many sacrifices in order to try and guarantee their survival. Not all managed to hang on and come out of the other side of the recession and the level of unsustainable debt in particular led to an overhaul of the insolvency laws with many entities and individuals finding themselves in the position of having to avail of these new provisions in some form or other. Those businesses that did survive often did so by making what they perceived to be relevant efficiencies – stock levels were reduced to avoid tying up cash, marketing and advertising became a luxury as opposed to a necessity, repairs and preventative maintenance were preferred to capital expenditure and employee training and upskilling was often postponed. Whilst the end result may have been achieved in terms of survival, these businesses must now face the impact of these perceived efficiencies as the economy starts to show some tentative signs of a business revival. The key issue is how have these perceived ‘efficiencies’ which many business owners and leaders implemented during the survival period actually impacted on their businesses in the early stages of a revival and how do they go about addressing these now. Now that business leaders are starting to think more towards growth strategies again as opposed to operating in survival mode, it could, very understandably, be difficult to commit to spending on marketing, capital expenditure, expansion, upskilling, training and modern IT processes when it took all their skill and leadership to stabilise their business during the recession years. However for many business owners and leaders, the key to growth and long term survival is their ability to adapt to the modern, much changed market environment. How they go about adapting to the necessary changes is the next challenge they face. Most business owners, when understandably focussing on survival, may have overlooked potential growth opportunities to the extent that they need to change their approach post -recession to deal with the more modern and often more global marketplace. After years of closely monitoring visible costs, in particular cutting out what was often seen as unnecessary or discretionary spending, revising their approach to these costs can present a challenge, particularly if the end result of these costs may not be as visible in the current market place as it was pre-recession. In particular modern IT business processes have developed and continue to develop at an alarming rate when the rest of the business world was ‘cutting its cloth’ to deal with the downturn. Internet and global sales are now an integral part of many successful growth businesses – this is a challenge many business owners and leaders must come to terms with in the newly emerging business world. To deal with these challenges it is often essential that IT systems have to be upgraded, customer expectations have to be carefully ascertained and matched to product, new product development is essential to keep up with the ideas continually being brought to market by the new breed of entrepreneur emerging, staff often need to be upskilled and trained to meet these needs and many modern businesses now need to be able to operate on a 24/7 basis as opposed to the old 9-5 five day week. To deal with these challenges requires investment, both a combination of financial and time investment. Whilst all confident business owners and leaders are often willing to invest as much of their time into any business as it requires to make the business successful, all business owners and leaders are well aware that sourcing finance is not as easy now as it was previously – to generate same requires confidence in the business coupled with a good sound business plan setting out the direction for the business. Ultimately success or failure will be measured against such a plan. Previously these plans were seen predominantly as a financial tool – this is no longer the case. All facets of modern business have to be fused together to drive a successful business forward – marketing, production, distribution, HR, IT, investment, management and financial matters are all equally important components of a modern business and all require financial and time investment. If these components are not addressed it could well prove difficult to any business emerging from recent challenging economic times to ultimately succeed. Now is the time for the businesses emerging from the recessionary period to address these issues. These businesses have already been in the market and ultimately have a foothold, however tentative, over the new start-up businesses which have to establish themselves from scratch. If they do not move quickly to bring themselves ‘up to speed’ with the modern business environment they could find it a challenge to move forward profitably and successfully. It is time for these businesses and their leaders to realise their full potential, to move their businesses from a period of stabilisation and survival to a period of expansion and growth, from a period of closely monitoring every cost to a period of rebuilding profits. We at UHY Farrelly Dawe White Limited have the forward thinking professional expertise locally and the connections with our like-minded international associates globally to be in a position to help your business to grow, to provide it with professional guidance and to assist with all of the individual components required to make it a success, both locally and where relevant, globally. The message to all forward thinking business owners and leaders is clear – start developing your business for the changing business world now and plan today for your future. We can assist you to achieve these aims and objectives by working closely with you and your business. If you would like to meet us to look at the ideas and options available to you and your business and how you might start to develop these please feel free to contact us. Our team of experts have many years of professional experience and expertise in dealing with all aspects of business life – we are willing to share these with you! Contact Gareth Evans on (042)9339955 or email garethevans@fdw.ie for an initial consultation.
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