ONE SYSTEM, TEN KEY AREAS
The SMARTer System
Build a business that achieves what you want it to.
Most owners know something isn't working as well as it should. Fewer can say exactly what, or where to start. The SMARTer System looks at the whole business through ten key areas, finds the two or three that would make the biggest difference to you, and helps you make the changes stick.
WHAT YOU WANT
It starts with what you want
Every business is trying to get somewhere, and every owner wants something different from theirs. Most want some mix of four things:
01
A business that makes the money it should, not just more turnover.
02
Your time back, with less coming back to you.
03
A team that runs things well without you in every conversation.
04
A business worth more, when you choose to step back.
So the SMARTer System starts with your goals, not a template, and everything that follows is measured against them.
The system itself is your business's own: the way it wins work, delivers it and runs itself. It is not a programme I deliver to you. My job is to help you see it clearly and improve it.
HOW THE AREAS CONNECT
Ten key areas, one business
The ten key areas cover what a growing business that sells expertise needs to run well. They are connected, so a problem in one usually shows up somewhere else: sales promise what delivery cannot keep, or growth outruns the cash to pay for it.
The ten key areas are the map. Your business, and what you want from it, decides the journey. We only ever work on your two or three most important areas, and we start with the one that unlocks the rest.
Direction. Where the business is going, and how it is led.
Creating revenue. Marketing, Sales and Clients.
Delivering value. Service delivery and People.
A healthy business. Finance and commercial management, and Systems and technology.
Protecting and improving it. Risk and resilience, and Continuous improvement.
AREA BY AREA
The ten key areas
Ten areas, in five groups: direction, creating revenue, delivering value, a healthy business, and protecting and improving it. Together they cover what a business that sells expertise needs to run well. Each card gives the area in a sentence, and a question worth asking about your own business.
Direction
Direction and leadership
How the business is led and where it is going: the direction, the priorities, and the decisions that follow.
Where do you want the business to be in three years, and what needs to change to get there?
Creating revenue
Marketing
How the business creates demand for its services: who it is for, what it is known for, and how it stays visible.
Where do your best clients come from, and how deliberately are you creating more of them?
Creating revenue
Sales
Turning opportunities into profitable work consistently, without it all resting on you.
If you wanted to win a quarter more work, what would actually have to change?
Creating revenue
Clients
The value of the relationship to both sides: keeping clients, doing more for them, and being recommended.
What would your most valuable clients say is the reason they stay with you?
Delivering value
Service delivery
Where the promise made by marketing and sales becomes reality: quality, capacity and margin.
What happens to quality and profit when you get a third busier?
Delivering value
People
An organisation capable of delivering what you want: roles, managers, delegation and succession.
What are you still doing because you haven't yet got someone you trust to do it?
A healthy business
Finance and commercial management
Understanding the economics of the business, and using them to make decisions.
Which clients and services are actually making you money?
A healthy business
Systems and technology
Whether the way the business works has kept pace with its growth.
Where is the business losing time, information or control?
Protecting and improving it
Risk and resilience
The things that could seriously disrupt the business, kept practical rather than a compliance exercise.
If you couldn't work in the business for six months, what would happen?
Protecting and improving it
Continuous improvement
Whether the business deliberately learns, and gets better on purpose.
How do you know whether the business is getting better?
FOUR STEPS
How it works in practice
Four steps, repeated for as long as they are useful. Each one leaves something in the business that stays: a clear view, a decision, a working practice, a measured result.
Look at all ten key areas, quickly and honestly, with the free review or a SMARTer Business Review.
Choose the two or three areas that would make the biggest difference.
Set goals for them, and work on them: coaching, evidence and experience, with you making the decisions.
Review what happened, learn from it, and move to the next priority.
Find out where to focus first
Take the free review, or talk it through on a Discovery Call. No pitch, no pressure, and you'll leave with something useful either way.