The summer is drawing to a close, and what a summer it was. By now, your team should be back at work, hopefully well rested and looking forward to the months ahead with renewed vigour. But as the business owner, how are you feeling?

Did your business cope without you this summer?

The summer holidays can be a useful test of how dependent a business is on its owner. There’s a natural journey that most businesses go on, from being totally dependent on the owner for day-to-day tasks, to a situation where the business functions perfectly well even if the owner’s not around. Your summer holiday (or lack of) gives you an idea of where your business is at on that journey.

By developing your business so that you can take both short and extended breaks from it without everything falling apart, you’re creating a business that’s more efficient, more pleasurable to run – and, ultimately, more valuable.

So, how did your business get on without you this summer? Did things tick along with just a light touch from you, or were you answering emails for hours at the beach? Perhaps you didn’t feel able to take a holiday at all.

Looking to the future

If you managed some time away from the business, however brief, you’re hopefully feeling recharged and ready to drive your business forward. That’s why autumn is such a great time to assess where your business stands right now and where you want to go from here – whether that’s making sure you’re on track to meet your year-end objectives, or looking at bigger-picture goals like developing the business to be less dependent on you (with one eye on your next holiday!).

Maybe you already know what you need to do to drive the business forward, but you don’t yet have a plan to get you there. Or perhaps you need some guidance on how to take the business to the next level. Either way, Henchards can help.

Coaching and business advice is something that many business owners see as a reactive (rather than proactive) step; they seek help when problems arise in the business or if they’re struggling in some way. But proactive business advice can help you solve problems before they arise, identify opportunities for growth that you might not otherwise have spotted, and create clear action plans for developing the business, both in the short term and the long term.

With just a few months left of 2018, now is the ideal time to look at what’s achievable for the rest of this year, and make a plan for 2019. For business advice that drives your business forward, talk to Henchards.

Photo credit Henry Parker