This edition is a guest posting by one of our listed Companies ARCH and as you will see they continue to win awards!

Local Company on the way to Green Glory

One of the Businesses on StevenageLocalBusiness, ARCH based in Gosmore and Stevenage has won a Green Apple Environment Award in the national campaign to find Britain’s greenest companies for their In Bloom competition for Stevenage, Hitchin and Letchworth.

They competed against more than 500 other nominations and will be presented with their Green Apple Award at a glittering presentation ceremony in the House of Commons on November 14^th.

As a result of this success they have been invited to have their winning paper published in The Green Book, the leading international work reference on environmental best practice, so that others around the world can follow their example and learn from their experience.

They will also be considered to represent their country in the European Business Awards for the environment.

The Green Apple Awards began in 1994 and has become established as the country’s major recognition for environmental endeavour among companies, councils, communities and countries.

Judges for the Green Apple Awards are drawn from the Environment Agency, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, the Chartered Institution for Wastes Management and other independent bodies.

If you would like to find out more about the work that ARCH are doing please contact Steve on 01462 420 598 or check out the website at www.arch.uk.com and on www.stevenagelocalbusiness.com

Don’t forget if you would like to contribute to our Blog please let me know!
 

Until next time,

Malcolm

Answers!

I promised in my last Blog to give you some answers to the questions in the Health Check:


When you started the company you had some aims and objectives. Have you achieved them? If not, why not, are they still relevant?
Do you put your suppliers in competition? Yes, at least annually.
Do you have an overdraft? Yes, there if needed.
Do you push this limit frequently? Not a good sign!
Do you negotiate your overdraft? Yes, at lease annually.
Do you check your accountant's work? Yes, each quarter.
Do you ask for help or advice regarding your business Yes, from successful peers.
Are you owed by your debtors? Yes, but none more than agreed limit.
Do you have any debts outstanding more than 60 days old? No!
Do you have management accounts? Yes.
Do you predict your cash needs for the business? Yes, quarterly.
Do you have a Business Plan? Yes.
Have you ever investigated the possibility of Grants for the company? Yes.
Do you monitor your competitors' performance? Yes.
Are you increasing sales at the same levels as your competitors? Yes (if not what are they doing that your not?)
Do you have a Sales Plan Yes.
Do you have a Marketing Plan? Yes.
Do you ever undertake advertising? Yes and check ROI.
Do you monitor projects? Yes weekly / monthly.
Are your projects and services Fixed price? No.
Do you have premises? Yes, if so what are the costs against profit?

These can only be a rough indicator of the health of the Business and each one can be investigated further as necessary.

I hope you have found this useful; in future editions I will be looking at some of these in more detail as well as current trends and practices. 

However, next time I will have the first of our Guest Bloggers!

Don't miss it!

Regards,

Malcolm

Success Checklist!

Last time I looked at ways to secure the future of your Business, now we need to do a "Check" to see where you are at the moment!
The questions, where are you now, where do you want to be and how are you going to get there, are the high level; we are going to look in some detail at the first question, "Where are you?"

The following questions should be treated as a checklist of your current "Health".

Question
When you started the company you had some aims and objectives. Have you achieved them?
Do you put your suppliers in competition?
Do you have an overdraft?
Do you push this limit frequently?
Do you negotiate your overdraft?
Do you check your accountant's work?
Do you ask for help or advice regarding your business
Are you owed by your debtors?
Do you have any debts outstanding more than 60 days old?
Do you have management accounts?
Do you predict your cash needs for the business?
Do you have a Business Plan?
Have you ever investigated the possibility of Grants for the company?
Do you monitor your competitors' performance?
Are you increasing sales at the same levels as your competitors?
Do you have a Sales Plan
Do you have a Marketing Plan?
Do you ever undertake advertising?
Do you monitor projects?
Are your projects and services Fixed price?


Next time I will look at the answers and what it means for your Business

Malcolm

Email: Malcolm@StevenageLocalBusiness.com

Web: http://www.stevenagelocalbusiness.com/