About Business Mentoring
You need a business mentor because competition is tougher than it has ever been and there is overcapacity in the most industries in that there are more suppliers than the market needs. The market has become more turbulent and unpredictable and therefore it is vital that organisations have the ability to adapt, switch and change to meet the needs of the market place.
The steps in the business mentoring process would be,
A business mentor will work with the owner/ manager to review the business in its entirety; markets & products & services; purchasing; internal operations; business strategy, environment.
The core issues that need to be addressed will be highlighted e.g.
- A cost reduction programme.
- Change in marketing policy or introduction of new products / services.
- Discontinue unprofitable products/ services.
- Change in strategic direction e.g. entering new markets introducing new products.
- Organisation restructuring.
- Strategic Alliance with other companies etc.
An action plan outlining a specific set of actions and resources required and a specific timescale to achieve each target.
The mentor would typically meet the owner and/a team at specified intervals possibly half day per week / month until the objectives are achieved.
Progress would be reviewed and plans would be tweaked and changed to take account of the prevailing circumstances.
The business mentor would finish after a specified time scale but the process would continue indefinitely.
We will work with you to devise a plan and timescale to achieve objectives and will then work with you until the objectives have been achieved.
We can provide you with an experienced mentor who can draw on experience from similar situations they have encountered in the past and use this knowledge, skills and experience to devise and implement strategy to bring improvements.
Examples of Business Mentoring assignments Costelloe & Co have worked on,
Costelloe and Co have mentored at board level for multi-national and small indigenous Irish companies. We understand how organisations function and have a track record for bringing about improvements in companies.
Sean Costelloe was involved as a mentor/ executive for the set up of a Broadband company Novenetworks, Costelloe and co worked with the promoter when he decided to set up a broadband company in 2004.
- Developing the original idea with the promoter.
- Advising and supervising market research to determine what income
the business could generate. - Advice on setting up the company
- Advising on how the company should be funded and preparation of budgeted cash flow statements, Profit & Loss accounts and balance sheet for banks.
- Setting of intermediate and long term goals for the company.
Sean Costelloe acted as a mentor to an entrepreneur in Cork Mr Sean Kirwan,
Mr Kirwan decided in 1989 to set up a company Kars (Ireland)Ltd to repair and replace car windscreens at the client’s premises. Heretofore the clients had to bring their cars to the garage to get windscreens replaced. This new mobile windscreen replacement service was an imaginative innovation. The company grew from an annual turnover of €60,000 to approx €500,000(and employing 12 people) over a 10 year period and was eventually taken over by another company Allied Irish Windscreens. Costelloe & Co had a 3 year involvement with this company.
Developing the initial idea and drafting a business plan,
- Advising on how the company should be funded and preparation of financial projections for the company to progress bank loan applications.
- Working on a quality management system ISO 9000.
- Setting up key performance indicators to measure business performance
Case Study of a
Business Turnaround
Background
A small service company was experiencing seriously difficulties it was losing money and was having severe cash flow problems and having problems getting credit from the bank.
A Business Mentor in conjunction with the managing director reviewed activities at the company.
The critical issues were,
- Its turnover from lunch sales had declined steadily over the past few years even though
the quality of its food was good. - It was not controlling its costs sufficiently as the following benchmark will show,
- Bar sales were down.
The business mentors approach and style
- Observe first hand activities in the restaurant and bar to get an appreciation
of how the business functioned. - Talk to customers and also hand out questionnaires to get feedback
as to why business was declining. - Meet and talk to waitressing and kitchen staff.
- Review the cost structure of the company and critically examine all expenditure
to ensure that cash was not being wasted
The business mentors philosophy was to use his own experience, knowledge and expertise but also tap into the experience of staff, manager, customers etc.
The benefits of this were,
- It created enthusiasm amongst the staff and also generated
a lot of very good ideas, opinions etc. - It meant that the proposed new strategy was part of team input
with the mentor playing the role of a facilitator. - It had major benefits in terms of getting approval for any changes and therefore
it should not be difficult to implement improvements.
The style involved collaborating with all personnel in the company.
Findings – Restaurant
- The main complaint regarding the restaurant was the length of time it took to get served
- The one single biggest complaint was that the service was erratic some days it took 5 minutes to get a meal and other days the waiting could be up to 30 minutes. This clearly did not suit people at work who had a tight time schedule.
- Having considered the matter it was decided to investigate the possibility of providing a carvery service as this would dramatically reduce the waiting time.
- It was decided that the carvery must not diminish quality in any way.
- Having received assurance from the kitchen staff it was decided to introduce carvery lunch where customers would queue with tray and be served by kitchen staff.
The company also considered doing lunches at the week end but this was considered too risky a proposal (i.e. additional staff costs etc) until the business was in a more profitable position.
The carvery lunch was introduced (after making modifications to the restaurant) and there was a lot of advertising to publicise same and turnover doubled and cashflow improved by € 2000 per week.
Findings – The Bar
- Business in the bar was reasonably but is down significantly in recent years due changes in habits, smoking ban, competition from off licences.
- It was considered that the bar could be revamped and given a facelift however the bar manager and managing director felt this would involve significant investment.
- When the bar was compared with other bars in the locality it was decided
that its business was above average. - There was overcapacity of bars in the area and so it was decided not to make any changes in this area but to review the situation in a few years time.
- The managing director suggestd that perhaps the company could consider reducing the size of the bar and converting some of the premises into an off licence.
The Recommended Improvements
Were as follows
- Critically examine all costs and seek to get saving in expenditure.
- Implement a carvery service to improve service and generate increased sales in food.
- For the present leave the bar business as it is as it is best to implement recommendations
1 and 2 and see what progress is made the reassess the situation in 6 months time.
Results of the change in Strategy:
- Sales of lunches per day doubled per week and this improved
net cash flow by €900 per week. - Staff morale improved due to a different approach to managing people i.e. more
consultative and greater emphasis on team working. - Annual costs were reduced by 30,000 per annum. Significant costs were reduced in Accounting fees, phone costs, rent, repairs and maintenance, reduced wastage of food.
- Accounting and Taxes
- Reduce Tax Bills
- Reduce Business Costs
- Business Mentoring
- Strategic Planning
- Market Research
- Management Consulting
- Business Planning
- SAGE Training
Sean Costelloe is an experienced professional Accountant and Business Mentor with broad experience in all aspects of accounting, consulting and financial management.
Sean Costelloe is a
over 20 years experience
Sean Costelloe has also consulted on business strategy at senior management (including board level) for many multi national and indigenous Irish companies e.g.
and approx 80 indigenous Irish companies