Workshop to set up local businesses for success

3 February 2020

Business Planning Workshop to set up local businesses for success

Whanganui & Partners is hosting a workshop on the 25th of February to help local business owners develop their business plans.

“A business plan spells out your business’s objectives and how you’ll achieve them,” said Tim Easton, Whanganui & Partners’ Business Growth Advisor. “It sounds simple, but it can be challenging to drill down into the essentials of a business.”

Easton says the idea for a business planning workshop was prompted by research by the Small Business Council finding that many businesses lacked a plan for how they would achieve their goals.

“The survey showed that although 64% of businesses had a goal of growing over the next five years, only half of them had a written plan for growth.

I’ve found a similar trend from the conversations I’ve had with businesses since I started in the role of Business Growth Advisor.”

The workshop will be targeted to local, small businesses and will be facilitated by Toss Grumley, an Auckland-based business coach at business advisory firm Wolf & Fox. Ongoing support to businesses will be provided by Whanganui & Partners.

“Having Toss come in is a great way to expose our businesses to some outside thinking,” Easton said. “I work closely with these businesses and there’s a lot of value in that relationship, but it always helps to get a fresh perspective.”

Grumley says he is looking forward to bringing his expertise to Whanganui’s businesses through the workshop.

“I always find it incredibly interesting to hear about the varying outlooks and challenges across different regions,” Grumley said. “In the workshop, I'll give clear tips and strategies that work well across my client base and tackle the correct ways to think about each element of the business. Attendees will leave with a clear framework for completing their business plans.”

According to Grumley, writing a business plan is one of the most important steps a business can take to set themselves up for success.

“All businesses need a clear sense of direction of where they are going,” Grumley said. “If you aren't regularly analysing every aspect of your business and coming up with new strategies and ways to optimise, you are stagnant and that's not a good place to be with things moving so quickly in today's world.”

Grumley says that one tip he has for businesses getting started on their plan is to think broadly before setting specific business goals.

“Start with the big picture things, like why are you doing this business? What are the outcomes you are in looking for in your life from it? We need to design a business that is not just 'right', but right for you and the lifestyle you are aiming to achieve. If you are coming up with initiatives that don't fit this, figure out a way to do it that does.”

The workshop will be held on Tuesday, 25 February from 11am – 3:30 pm at the Pioneer Room of the Whanganui War Memorial Centre. The cost to attend is $50 per business. Business owners can register for the event on Whanganui & Partners’ website: www.whanganuiandpartners.nz/business-workshop

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