Business planning feels sometimes like visiting the dentist – you know you must do it, but you keep putting it off.

Historically business plans were prepared to obtain finance and subsequently filed away. Larger corporations prepared business plans internally to justify operational and project budgets. These business plans were seldom revisited and the accuracy and completeness were always questionable.

Regardless of the size of your business, it is imperative to be incredibly focused within your business. In depth focus can only be achieved through proper planning. This can be achieved through the use of structured business plan, sound business advice and ongoing evaluation against the plans.

The structure of the business plan should include:

• Current market situation – Understand your current market environment, including its size and the share you can realistically achieve. The size of the market will depend on market trends, target customers and competition.

• Current target customers - Evaluate the characteristics of the target customers that could buy from your business.

• Competitor analysis – The level of competition and the strength of the competition will provide an indication of how difficult it will be for you to attract customers.

• Marketing strategy – List the objectives and targets for the volume and share of the market you hope to achieve and when you want to achieve it by.

• Marketing plan – Explain in detail how you going to achieve your marketing targets and objectives.

• Sales Goal and objectives – Details your sale forecasts in terms of different product types by volume and value.

• Operational requirements – Draft an outline for your plans for premises, equipment, staff, suppliers, compliance and estimated costs.

• Current financial requirements and financial forecasts – Includes a breakdown of your financial requirements, the sources of finance available and any shortfall that will require funding.

• Management processes – Consider key skills, responsibilities, and management processes needed.

• Business risks – Details the risks your business is exposed to and how you plan to mitigate it.

No-one knows the pitfalls of planning and running a business better than persons who have done it. Rather than wait too late, contract business advisors if you do not have the necessary expertise. Experts can not only provide business advice for your business planning process but will become advocates for your business, cheering it on!

No matter what the size or industry of your business, the efforts to identify attainable awards and to pursue for qualification and nomination can pay off handsomely in future sales. Businesses of all sizes, from multi-national corporations to small local businesses, should be aware of the value of attaining awards for business excellence.  As described at the awards list site, the positive effects from attaining a business award include free press coverage, greater employee satisfaction, and access to bigger contracts.

One of the best indicators for prospective customers of a business is to find out if the company has received any recent awards for excellence in customer service. Clients look for and appreciate good customer service whether it be through the actual transaction or the help they gain through your support team. A company’s reputation in their market can be greatly increased by winning a business award for excellent customer service.

Only companies that show the sincerest dedication to customer service will have a realistic hope of being nominated for such an award. If a management team wants to generate successful results, they need to do more than just set the tone of the workplace. Results count, and in order to ensure the company achieves the results, quality needs to be measured.

The first step in achieving a measure of excellence in customer service is to identify the expectations of the customers that purchase your products or services. Once their expectations are identified, the goal is to meet and exceed their standards on a sustained basis.

Metrics for customer service satisfaction measure the company’s performance against the expectations of its customers. On-site or follow-up surveys are useful for gathering data in this crucial area. When satisfied customers start talking it can generate great publicity for the company so customer satisfaction is very beneficial.

If a company can then achieve a business award because of their top quality, their exceptional customer service record will be further publicized. The great benefit of receiving such an award is that it will make it easier for a company to attract new customers and maintain their current client base.

The link between spy gadgets and spy movies is obvious. Some say it first emerged with James Bond to reassure us that we really were winning the Cold War.  And those gadgets were indeed ludicrous: bulletproof pyjamas, a cigarette lighter that doubled as a .22-calibre gun, a lipstick that could record conversations or release poisonous gas.  They were clearly theatrical and were like nothing you would expect to find or would even make sense in real life.   But now, many companies are being forced to look at some of the less fanciful spy gadgets, especially those associated with covert surveillance, in a very real life application.

Employers need to be on red alert as the economic downturn forces many workers to find extra cash dishonestly. The prospect of “spying” on your staff and employees is never a pleasant thing. But the unpleasant reality is that the economic crisis is fuelling crime. 31 police forces across England and Wales reported a dramatic rise in acquisitive crimes during the last four months of 2008. 5,572 more cases of acquisitive crime took place during those months than the previous year.

Recent figures showed that employee fraud cost UK companies more than £77m in the first half of 2008 - up from just £10m in the same period the previous year. Spiralling personal debt fuelled by mortgage, food and fuel price hikes is making workers desperate. Companies throughout the UK are beginning to realise the importance of getting to grips with the fraudulent activity of their staff.
Some form of business fraud is currently being committed by an estimated 1 in 5 staff according to recent figures, so employers need hard, incontrovertible proof, if they are to tackle the problem.  Spy gadgets can assist in this task by closely monitoring employee activities utilising specialist covert cameras and recording equipment or vehicle tracking equipment if you’re dealing with suspected fraud in a mobile sales force for example.   By sending out a clear message to employees that fraud in the workplace is unacceptable the employer will be able to control the situation and probably reduce operating costs.