Consulting

Summary

Ignite Business Consulting primarily works with companies in the resource/energy sector through to trade, legal and accounting firms. Our consulting is project based with delivery time frames, and carries a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Our work can really be summed up in two words:

1. Efficiencies
2. Improvement

We focus on improving business productivity through identifying and refining critical areas, resulting in greater efficiency and increased revenue.

Our Process

Our standard consulting process involves the following key steps:

• Identify, define, and measure results in critical areas needing improvement 
• Establish improvement goals
• Make necessary changes, improving the current condition
• Monitor and record progress
• Manage new processes

Performance results are tabulated onto a one page document, allowing decision makers to monitor ongoing business improvements.

Our Work

Workflow and Leaner Processes

We focus on increasing business efficiency. Many companies currently have multiple processes causing a lack of 'flow' or blockage.  We work towards streamlining processes, encompassing critical areas such as supply chains, internal processes, job card to invoicing (for trade related entities), staff and management alignments to key roles and responsibilities, debtor managment and cash flow strategy. Typical recent outcomes have been:

• 51 hours per week of time saved after re-working a company's delivery process
• Reducing job card to invoicing from three weeks to five days
• Integration of electronic pens resulting in field information being communicated to the office immediately
• Process mapping a company's work flow according to the customers 'wants', delivering a more streamlined process

"We are more organised, have slashed delivery times to our clients by 75%, increased profitability and I personally have freed up the majority of my time for ongoing business development."  Nathan Morris - Morris Accounting

Management/Team development

We work with key management and staff to match job roles to appropriate staff, ensuring maximum job satisfaction.  We identify and develop staff potential, while ensuring clear role descriptions, KPI's and expectations, avoiding the 'promoted to incompetence' syndrome. The DiSC Behavioural Profiling System is often used as part of this process. As a team member who had been offered a management position stated during a recent interview,"I just want to drive cranes", which the management had the wisdom to allow.

"Given the task of interviewing my department managers, (who I had offered a percentage of ownership to within the company), we discovered through the process that they were best suited for non management/ownership roles. What a relief! Ray's work has potentially saved me well in excess of a million dollars (and the grief that goes with having the wrong people on board) for which I am incredibly grateful". Nick Burke HEQ

Productivity

One of our primary goals is to establish a simple system that monitors the productivity and profit of each producer, in terms of the hours billed versus the hours worked.  Regular accountability sessions are based on these figures and have been shown to increase production significantly (as much as 216% in one lawyer's case).

Cash Flow and Profitability

After working with him for six weeks, one business owner recently stated: "My invoices are up to date and I have money in the bank".  Similarly another stated, "before we started working together I often wondered if we would make wages but now I have $100k in the bank".  When working on a company's cash flow and profitability, we progress through the following stages:

• Understand the company's cash conversion cycle from the initial order/job to cash in the bank, taking into consideration the time taken complete the job. This is a critical component for many service firms we work with, who often find hundreds of thousands of dollars waiting to be invoiced, even 4 - 8 weeks after the job's completion
• Outstanding debtors and recovery process eg. Is a call placed or a letter sent to the client where the bill hasn't been paid by its due date?
• Analysing profit per job, employee (producer), department and so on.
• Billing WIP more frequently, where possible
• Correcting mark ups and hourly rates 
• Assisting in cash flow forecasting and management
• Being aware of and documenting the key numbers that affect the end result of cashflow and profits; analysing these and making continual incremental changes

Sales and Marketing

Machine gun or sniper? Our work is more akin to that of a marksman than trying to fire off a million rounds through a machine gun. Here are a few examples:

• Understanding a company's Core Focal Concept, including current likes, competencies, areas of excellence, and income sources, with a view to how these intersect with target market needs.
• Evaluate current marketing efforts and gain a thorough understanding of 'who' our buyer (or market) is
• Discard all non producing or irrelevant marketing efforts/mediums
• Fine tune and create an aligned strategy based on the 'ideal buyer', taking into account the subsequent quoting/sales process.
• Measure and improve ongoing results

Accountability

An electrical services company wanted an ongoing accountability relationship, as opposed to the project based work we do. We regularly monitored their progress and challenges, acting as a sounding board for the ongoing growth and development of their business.

“I have been working with Ray for the last 6 months and in that time have seen continual growth of our business. Increase has happened in actual jobs, revenues and the corresponding staffing to keep up with the growth. We are more fully utilising our internal systems, keeping on top of invoicing and debtors and now starting to monitor the business in terms of numbers." Brad Smith - Wolfenden Electrical

Strategic Growth/Business planning

Projects often include the request for future strategic planning, measured by corresponding results over the longer term.  A recent example of a completed strategic plan was to establish a five year chart providing the principal of the business with an increasing personal income and decreasing annual work load. His goal was to own a business that didn't own him. This primarily revolved around financial goals and corresponding staffing, along with decreasing his personal time 'in the business'.