This successful executive coaching and recruitment company, were aware of a burgeoning market segment that was taping into the start-up and entrepreneurial world. They had a coaching concept in mind, complimentary to their existing business but were time and resource constrained a with no time to devote to the expansion planning.
The concept they wanted to pursue involved training cohorts of start-up teams, to pitch to selected investors who would have exposure to their new innovative ventures. The video explains how this would work in practise.
Potestas developed a full operational and financial model of the new business in order to assess its viability and integration into their current work practices. In a very short time the business could devote its limited resources to make an informed decision on whether to proceed.
Software Integrator
This company was a software integrator for Microsoft products with an expertise in migrating organisations to new platforms and business productivity suites.
Potestas analysed the company’s current skill levels to Microsoft’s existing and the new product range, aimed at the introduction of cloud services. Organisations upgrading to new cloud services was a game changer for the company, as the process was far easier and cheaper. To attain the same levels of income, they would need to dramatically increase their project throughput while at the same time upskilling to offer new product support.
It was clear to the business owners, from this assessment, that they would need to change direction in order to survive. Their decision not to commit more capital to the existing business allowed them to strategically move forward.
Education
Getting children into the right schools and attaining reasonable grades is every parent’s concern when considering their education and their future. The business was run with manual processes and as a result required a large staff and a 7 day a week involvement by the management, to keep the activities running.
Our assignment was to map out a new automated process and deliver the software application to be used by the staff, with a minimum of upskilling. Part of the work entailed encouraging management to use a computerised system and getting them to transfer the data from a paper based system to a database.
Furniture Franchisee
The owner of this business franchise had been trading successfully and increasing revenue, in his territory for some time. The parent company (Franchiser) had been recently been bought and the new owner intended to increase the number of outlets, proposing to locate one close to the existing franchise. The new shop location would significantly impact on their existing territory and overall revenue.
Potestas assessed the sales profiles in his existing territory and compared this to the average house prices, to ascertain income per post code. Based on this assessment Potestas applied this profiling to the new adjacent territory being carved out by the parent company. Using the revenue/ house price analysis results, the client was in a position to more accurately forecast the impact on revenue and workload.
The client had the information to make a decision on reducing his income or purchasing the new franchise territory. He bought the adjoining franchise, with a minimum of overhead uplift. The result was a greatly increased revenue base, even with a new shop fit-out and staffing costs deducted.
Fast Food
This was a start-up business based on offering a variety of cuisines, from a selection of independently run local restaurants, as a take away meal. The customer would order by telephone, from a combined meal menu that was delivered regularly to their door every Thursday.
Our task was to take the proposed service and automate the steps into a seamless, ‘just in time’ software application that would provide an interface for the customer order, restaurateur and delivery providers.
We were able to take away the worry of the software development and limit involvement to series of key milestone reviews, allowing the business owner to focus on the other parts of the business set up. This dramatically decreased his time to market, training of staff and the reduced the time to start earning income.
Mentoring
This assignment was undertaken for a London University to mentor a post graduate, MBA student, who the university sponsored to hold a Graduate Entrepreneur Visa to the UK.
The entrepreneurs venture distributes Asian ethnic, mid- price range, clothing and jewelry to family operated shops in London’s Asian markets. The advantage of the business is that it offers distinctive ethnic styles and designs at a competitive price, bringing a much needed fresh style and variety into the London’s Asian markets.
We were able to provide the entrepreneur with consistent mentoring help, by regular discussion of progress and choice of the best way forward, looking at the possible fully developed ‘end game’ and providing work sheets in order to visualise the financial impact.
When the entrepreneur looked at a wider product range and marketing and fulfillment solution, we helped him understand the extent of the business effort required, to get this new approach up and running. With our help the viability of the scheme could be more accurately assessed. Read More
