Business declines can be experienced in a number of ways; from a general decline in a business’s revenue, to a decline or erosion in profit margins to a decline in a specific area of the business or particular product/service revenue stream. The reasons, of course, can be many.

All too often, business owners and management teams can misdiagnose the root cause of such business declines. Moreover, they may not have seen the problem coming when all the signs were there, simply because they didn’t want to believe or accept them.

How the Adjustment Agency can help

Whatever you decide to do, in these situations it pays to act NOW. We regularly see situations where quite serious problems, that stand a good chance of being resolved, not addressed for too long, causing an escalation of problems that sadly can end with the appointment of an insolvency practitioner.

Even just discussing your situation with us may help convince you that getting a second, external and disassociated opinion, would be beneficial.

If you are prepared to act NOW, then we can help. Here’s how:

Initial meeting 

Our consultant(s) will meet with your management team or if you’re a smaller business, the owners/director of the firm. In that meeting we will aim to gain a clear understanding of what has transpired and how this has deviated from any planning that may be in place. We will try to understand the hopes and aspirations of the management team or owners/directors of the business, for example a return to previous levels of revenue, or a return to profitability etc.  It is of particular importance that there is a clear understanding of what they consider constitutes success in the current situation.

Business audit

Once we have met members of the management team and spent a little time getting their views and opinions on the issues at hand, we will begin our business audit. Specifically we’ll look into the following:

• The current management accounts to get an appreciation of the business’s overall performance against expectations.
• Your latest projections / forecasts.
• An historical view on your company’s performance.
• Your current business plan.
• What you believe to be the problem you’re encountering and the reasons you believe are behind it.
• What actions you may have taken to try and resolve what has happened.
• You market dynamics, your company’s positioning and your competition.
• Identify other market dynamics and trends that may be influencing the current situation.
• Whether your current expectations match the reality of the business and market environments you operate in.

Analysis

Our consultants will review and analyse the information and data gathered. 

Our analysis of the current position of the business goes goes hand-in-hand with our experiences of many other companies in a variety of sectors that have also suffered a decline in their fortunes

Through this, we will attempt to uncover the reasons behind the decline in business and identify a series of remedial actions your firm could undertake.

Presentation

The analysis will outline what we have uncovered and our thoughts and reasoning behind it. We will present our findings and conclusions to you and invite discussion.

Next steps

We’d hope at this point you find our conclusions persuasive enough to give your firm the confidence to move forward with the remedial actions we have suggested. At this point it’s up to you if you’d like our consultants engaged further in assisting with the implementation of the recommendations and suggestions we have made.