Assessing your business' health 

What constitutes a “healthy” business? When you set out to assess your business' health, you need to look through a wide lens and capture the entire picture. A periodic business health assessment should be a staple of your ongoing business planning cycle. A proper assessment will help you to determine your business' direction, moving forward.

When assessing your business, take each of the following questions into consideration. Keep your answers honest and accurate - it's imperative that you create a true picture of your business. Once you've answered all the questions, take the time to recognize where your deficiencies lie. Whether you're constantly chasing your customers for payments or you find that you're throwing a large amount of time and resources at equipment repairs and maintenance, addressing your deficiencies is the first step towards the coveted “clean bill of health”.

You

Your business is a direct reflection of you: your strengths and weaknesses. Examine your qualities, both positive and negative, and determine your impact as a leader and manager.

• What are your strengths and weaknesses?
• How can you improve your skills to better manage your business?

Your employees

Employees are the lifeblood of your business. Ensure that you recruit and manage your employees with a focus on organizational vitality.

• Do you employ the “right employees”, each of whom contributes to making your business run smoothly, or are you forced to rely on a small percentage of key employees to get the job done?
• Does your business suffer from a high employee turnover rate?
• Do you feel the pinch when a few employees are absent from work?
• Do your employees know what is expected of them?

Your management team

Ideally, your management team works well together towards fulfilling your vision for success. Great management teams boast members with diverse skills that complement one another. Analyze your team and determine their value to your business.

• Who are they and what do they bring to your team?
• Do their strengths and weaknesses create a strong balance?
• What training can you offer them (internal or external) to complement their skills?

Your market

A viable market makes your business profitable. Appraise your sales patterns and recognize the areas in which you've flourished and floundered. Examine new possibilities for growth.

• What are the demographics of your market: who are your customers?
• What portions of your customer base are most and least profitable?
• Do you anticipate entering new markets?
• Do you have a large customer base, or are you dependant on one or very few customers?

Your accounts receivable

Offering credit to your customers can act as an incentive for them to make larger purchases, and it can also attract new customers, but extending it does not come without risk. If you do offer credit to your customers, ensure that you take every measure to minimize your personal risk.

• Do you offer credit to your customers?
• Do you do thorough credit checks before extending credit to customers?
• Do you keep detailed records of accounts receivable?
• Do you have outstanding debts that have been owed to you for an unreasonable period of time?

Your competitors

If you run a successful business, you will always have competitors who want a share of your market. Rather than fret over competition, examine them and use your knowledge to determine where you can make improvements.

• Do you know who they are, and what their strengths are?
• How do your customers perceive your competition?
• Have you used benchmarking tools to see how you measure up to your competition?
• How would your customers compare you with your competitors?

Your products and services

You are what you sell. Take the time to analyze how each of your products and services perform in the marketplace. Remember, each product and service that you sell is only an asset if it brings value back into your business.

• Which of your products and services are the most and least profitable?
• Which of your products and services do your customers favour and why?
• Do any particular products or services cause frequent customer complaints regarding their price or quality?
• Do any of your products have occasion to sell out particularly fast, or do any seem to linger on your shelves? If so, do these situations occur during certain months or seasons?
• What do you do with unsold stock?

Your marketing strategy

With the wide range of media at your disposal, it's important to recognize the marketing streams that best attract your customers. Evaluate the methods you currently employ, and examine new marketing strategies to determine the most effective approach.

• Is your marketing strategy providing enough “bang” for your buck?
• Do you survey your customers to find out which of your marketing efforts are most effective?
• What methods do you use to attract new customers?

Your suppliers

You depend a great deal on your suppliers. Your management of supplier relationships can deeply impact the efficiency with which you do business.

• Do you have a strong working relationship with your suppliers?
• What are your suppliers' strengths and weaknesses?
• How could your suppliers improve their service?

Your finances

As a business owner, it is absolutely crucial that you effectively manage your finances. Keeping detailed financial records and accurately forecasting future cash flow will allow you to keep a firm handle on where your business is and where it is going.

• Do you consistently forecast upcoming sales, cash flow and profits?
• Are your forecasts reasonable and accurate?
• Do you keep detailed financial records that allow you to monitor performance?
• Have you noticed a decline in sales this year compared to previous years?
• Have financial difficulties caused you to:
  • Get behind on payments for supplies or taxes?
  • Get turned down for financial assistance from the bank?
• Are overhead costs outrunning your profits?
• Do you have an effective Customer Relationship Management system in place?

Your equipment

The right equipment for your business can increase productivity and, therefore, profits. On the flip side, inefficient equipment can slow or halt production and drive profits down. Examine your equipment needs carefully and research the best options for your business.

• Do you spend a large amount of time/ resources on equipment repair?
• Do you have the best equipment for your needs?

Your location

The location of your business should not only allow you to thrive in your current situation, but should also offer you room to grow. Don't let your location prevent you from achieving your business goals.

• What does your location have to offer?
• Can your location handle growth to your business?
• Does your location cause any operational deficiencies?

Business health resources

The following sections of our site will help you assess and manage the health of your business.

• Day-to-day operations

  Successfully managing the ups and downs of daily operations is the backbone of your business.

• Employees

  Being the boss is not easy. Discover how to effectively manage your employees.

• Market research and statistics

  Learn more about market research, how to conduct it and where to find free information and statistics to support your market research project.

• Marketing and sales

  How well you market your business and interact with your customers can vastly influence your success.

• Managing your finances

  You can use these resources to help you understand financial concepts and learn about tasks like budgeting, financial analysis and bookkeeping.

• Choosing and setting up a location

  Trying to decide where to locate your business and how to arrange it once you get there? Consider your options.