A BDSP guide to effective business diagnosis using the Growbridge Diagnostic Tool

Business - corporate

A BDSP guide to effective business diagnosis using the Growbridge Diagnostic Tool

The Growbridge diagnostic tool offers a comprehensive analysis of your business through 8 indicators. 7 of these indicators directly impact your business operations while the 8th indicator is the approach taken by your organisation to address growth barriers. The 9th indicator is where we come in as independent consultants and business development support service providers.

Business diagnosis is an activity that must be constantly done by the owners; however, this activity can be distracting or difficult to pull through due to a few reasons such as biases and inability to ask real questions that will stimulate real solutions to the business.

Using a business development support service professional offers you the opportunity to focus on your core activities while your businesses undergo adequate maintenance. Assigning a team to a business development support service professional will most likely help you make the most out of the exercise. Being truthful and brutally honest about your operations is critical to effective diagnosis and interventions that will achieve results. Consider this exercise as visiting your medical doctor or a hospital to get yourself checked and treated. Lying to your doctor will most likely lead to a failed diagnosis. The last time I checked, this could be fatal to your health and your wealth. Let us dive deep into these 8 key indicators and areas of concern.

  1. Business description, vision and value offering: How effective have you been able to articulate your value proposition? What are the drivers of your business and why do you think your offerings are fit for the market? State the purpose, vision and mission of your business. Clearly articulate what your business does/creates in/for the market.
  2. Sales and marketing: How have you done in your sales and marketing campaigns? Can you project what you intend to generate as sales and what will you need to achieve that? How are your branding and marketing activities faring and what are the issues and challenges that you must surmount to meet the numbers? What are your sales plan, goals and commitments? How do you sell and engage the market? How do you wish to sell and engage the market? Who is your target market and how do you intend to reach them? what channels would you like to use to ensure that all these happen?
  3. Management and staff employed: Who constitutes your management and how do they operate? What are their expertise and what values do they come on board with? What are the staff deliverables and how do they align with business goals and objectives? How productive and effective are they and how do you remunerate them? Who is in your team and how is your team constituted?
  4. Competitor and risk analysis: Who is in this business already or who would be interested in starting this business because of you? Which of these businesses provide the same service or alternative service that could impact your business? How do you intend to handle them? What are the challenges, and obstacles that you are likely to face and how do you plan on addressing them? What are the risks involved in the business and how do you mitigate the risks?
  5. Operations management: How do you want to get work done or how is work currently done in your enterprise? How and when do you use technology for efficiency and effectiveness? What systems, processes and procedures are put in place to ensure smooth operations of your business? How do you want to monitor your processes and activities? who are to be contacted and what technology do you require to get things done?
  6. Financial analysis: what do you intend to achieve by amassing all resources and how much do they cost? What will be the return on investment and how can you track and monitor these activities? What are the cost and profit components of this business venture? What are the numbers and how will you meet these numbers?
  7. Financing: How have you or do you intend to raise capital for the business? What is the cost of this capital raised or intended to be raised?  Where are you seeking funds for starting the business or a new product or service? How do you intend to achieve this? Are you seeking equity or a loan, or would you fund your business organically? What are you exchanging in value for these? What type of assets do you need and what types of funds are important for the growth, survival and sustainability of the business?
  8. Barriers to growth: what are the challenges that can impact the health of the business? What will or can stifle growth and how can you deal with all these challenges and barriers?
  9. BDSP support and timing: Ideally, interventions fall into 4 support interventions along 5 areas of support. The table below highlights the interventions and areas of support.

S/N

Support Intervention

Area of support

1

Access to market

 

  • Management
  • Finance
  • Sales and Marketing
  • Operations
  • Human resources

2

Access to finance

3

Competitiveness

4

Business Management 

Rose Window Consulting Ltd offers business development support services. You can reach out through the email info@rosewindowcosnulting.com or send us a WhatsApp chat on 09024259529.