Small business | StrategyAudit

Four strategic tasks for the owner of a successful SME.

strategyaudit — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 22:29:37 +0000

Success of an SME means they have crossed that shark filled river where most SME’s fall over. They have sufficient scale to employ functional personnel to address the day to day running of the business, and are returning the cost of capital and a bit more to the owner. For some this is […]

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Why are supermarkets so hard to deal with?

strategyaudit — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 00:03:41 +0000

Anyone dealing with Australia’s two supermarket gorillas knows how hard it is. You know the old adage: Question: Where does a 400 kg gorilla sleep? Answer: Anywhere they bloody like! Over the 45 years I have rubbed up against them, beginning as a young bloke when there were a number of now disappeared alternative […]

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What SME management should know before investing in chasing government grants

strategyaudit — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 21:56:57 +0000

Most SME’s I meet have at one time or another contemplated, and often invested considerable resources in the quest to obtain public grant funds. Rarely do they approach this exercise with any understanding of the disconnect between the way the commercial world, and the bureaucratic one work. They assume that what to them […]

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The biggest challenge for every dreamer who aspires to be an entrepreneur.

strategyaudit — Sun, 27 Aug 2023 22:40:45 +0000

Many of the impediments to starting a new business have been removed over the last 20 years. You no longer have to hire an accountant to register the business, hunt around for premises, hire a bookkeeper, find an advertising agency, build a product prototype, spend days designing the letterhead, understanding the regulations and […]

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My website ‘Vegemite’ test

strategyaudit — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 23:48:41 +0000

When my kids dropped a piece of toast, or bread on the floor (almost always spread side down) we used to invoke the ‘3 second test’. This was simply that the bugs took three seconds to wake up and realise there was a feed nearby, so if it was retrieved inside that time, […]

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The rule of the niche

strategyaudit — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 09:06:55 +0000

Standard marketing advice in this day of homogeneity, and certainly my advice for SME’s, is to ‘find a niche and own it’. Be the only one that competes in a market niche that you define. The deeper, darker and more remote the niche the better, because when you get engagement there, you will […]

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8 sources of competitive advantage SME’s have over larger rivals

strategyaudit — Thu, 11 May 2023 00:35:16 +0000

SME’s suffer in many ways from the lack of scale when competing against much larger enterprises. However, if you look hard enough, there are always benefits to be found that may outweigh the costs. Small budgets mean reliance on qualitative rather than quantitative research and market intelligence, which require deeper pockets. Go out and […]

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The start-up’s 3 card cash challenge.

strategyaudit — Sun, 26 Mar 2023 20:32:34 +0000

A start-up funded with a cash stake from family, friends, and fools, supplemented by available savings has in its future one of only three options. It runs out of cash before the end of the ‘runway’. Crash and burn. It extends the runway by finding more cash, usually from equity injections. This generally requires […]

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The elusive formula for winning and managing government grants.

strategyaudit — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 22:13:37 +0000

There is considerable grant money being allocated to innovative solutions to technical and market challenges by all levels of government. Such a honey-pot attracts all sorts of characters with a whole range of motivations, along with the genuine applicants seeking help. In this environment, panels of disinterested departmental officials and sometimes so called ‘experts’ […]

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The misleading myth of work/life balance.

strategyaudit — Sun, 12 Feb 2023 22:01:45 +0000

The term work/life balance seems to have been taken into our commonly used language. It pops up everywhere there is a discussion about stress, personal development, post covid back to work, and many others. To me it is a deeply flawed metaphor. The term ‘Balance’ immediately brings to mind the mental picture of the […]

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Same challenge, two strategically opposite responses.

strategyaudit — Thu, 02 Feb 2023 20:43:43 +0000

Woolworths last week announced they would close 250 of their current 300 in store butcher shops. Clearly, centralisation and opacity of the supply chain that serves customers via Woolworths is geared to the lowest common denominator, price. At the other end of the scale is Wolki farm in Albury. This is an integrated farm […]

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How can ‘ordinary’ manufacturing SME’s benefit from Federal grant ‘survival’ funding?

strategyaudit — Sun, 29 Jan 2023 21:55:10 +0000

The Federal Government committed to a $15 Billion National Reconstruction Fund’ in the October 2022 budget. While the 7 priority areas have been articulated, and there is a better than average website full of glossy photos and optimistic copy, we are waiting on the details. Of the $15 billion, 8 billion has been earmarked […]

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Are the marketing four P’s still relevant?

strategyaudit — Thu, 22 Sep 2022 23:31:35 +0000

In 1960, E. Jerome McCarthy published his idea of the four foundations of marketing. Price, Promotion, Product, and Place. The world has changed in the intervening 62 years, so you must wonder if this idea is still relevant, let alone a foundation. To my mind, they are not only relevant, but retain their […]

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Earnouts, payouts and pitfalls of SMEs engaging in M&A.

strategyaudit — Sun, 31 Jul 2022 23:30:19 +0000

Covid has led to quite a bit of M&A activity amongst the difficulties of trading. I know several ‘baby boomers’ who have just packed up and left. A number have sold businesses they previously intended to continue for a while, and leave ongoing entities to family, and other shareholders. Several have sold with […]

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What does the end of cheap money mean to manufacturing SME’s?

strategyaudit — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 03:55:49 +0000

The inflation figures released this morning put the annualised inflation rate at 5.1%, up from 3.5% at the end of the December quarter last year. While it may bounce around given the volatility of fuel and food prices, the trend is very clear, and the current election driven lucky dip of spending promises will […]

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