How Singapore businesses can revamp with a bang

As 2012 dashes towards the finish-line, the year-end can be a time of contemplation and resolution - an opportunity to consider the ways you can make your business better.

And if you're an owner-manager, that effort should probably start with a good look in the mirror.

It can take place curled up in a cosy chair with a pencil and paper, or on a hammock by the sea, even up in the mountains for a quiet self-evaluation.

Ringing out the old can usefully go hand in hand with a business review as well as a personal assessment - and it can help make your company much more effective after you ring in the new year.

And aside from your own personal inventory, just what should you be thinking about? Here are five ways you can re-energize your business in the new year :

1. Finance

Any company should regularly review basic financial indicators such as cash flow and profitability, but near the year-end, it is important to check on the difference between your projected and actual performance. What are the causes of your variances?

Owner-managers should develop pro forma financial statements for the next six months to a year, complete with income statement and balance sheet. Cash flow projections should be updated more frequently, perhaps once a month. You want to ensure that there are no large dips that can wipe out your entire cash reserves.

2. Marketing

The year-end is a good time to make a comparison of your past marketing initiatives.

Have they been as effective as you have hoped? Is your product or service doing the job for your customers? How well is it priced? Are you well attuned to your customers, meeting their needs on their terms? Do you communicate effectively with your customers with clear and consistent messages?

This is an excellent time to draft new KPIs and review past ones measured against their set targets.

The costs and budget of promotional efforts need to also be perused. How much do you spend on advertising? On promotion? How do you compare with competitors and the industry standard? There should be a good mix of traditional and new methods to remain competitive.

3. Strategic Planning

Many smaller businesses may not have a strategic plan, but if you have been growing, it is high time to develop one.

Once a business gets to a certain size, it is much more important to have a sense of all the variables, especially in expansion mode when banks or investors want to qualify your company for more funds. They want to see a plan because it is the only way you can communicate your complete corporate vision.

Strategic planning provides no guarantee that your company will be successful, but a plan can help you chart the future.

For your product line or services to expand, and how should you allocate capital and other resources, especially human resources? And once you have a strategic plan, you should spend considerable time figuring out how to implement it. Too many owner-managers write up a plan and then get caught up in the day-to-day operations, leaving the plan in the cobwebs.

4. Relationship Building

This is a broad category that refers to all the important relationships inherent in your business, from family members who might share ownership to financial backers like banks or venture capitalists, from customers and suppliers to perhaps your most valuable resource of all - your employees.

Staying in touch with board members who are stakeholders in the company, taking people to lunch, hosting receptions or parties, or just having investors come for a visit to the plant may seem a bit frivolous.

But there's a reason why so many companies do these things; it is because they help foster relationships. It works to gain intangible but very real benefits.

Even more crucial are ongoing relations with your clients. Do I have a mechanism to resolve conflicts between members who may be working in a project or an account together?

If the year-end is usually slow for your business, use this time to strengthen your relationships with your clients with a comprehensive year-end review.

As for employee relations, consider two important options. The first is regularly consulting with key employees to bring them into the decision making process. The second is starting a profit sharing program. Losing an experienced employee can affect the survival of the business.

5. Public Outreach

Particularly at this time of year, people feel an urge to reach out to the wider community, to make contributions in dollars or voluntary effort. By investing in your community, for instance, you build goodwill and loyalty to those who share your cause.

You may not start out thinking about the bottom line when you give to charity or organize a volunteer effort, but good works have a way of reflecting well on those who do them... and customers will naturally buy from people they trust and admire.