Having a budget – fully aligned with operational targets – is important, but it’s of limited use unless you update it regularly to reflect what’s happened so far as well as new emerging challenges or opportunities. By Dave Hickey F.C.A. I’ve recently being working with a small business which established a budgeting and financial reporting …
Building the right team and accessing the right skills can be significant challenges for scale-up enterprises. By Dave Hickey F.C.A. Over the past few weeks we have looked at the typical challenges facing scaling businesses and considered some tips to deal with them. Here we look at some tips about leading and growing your team …
‘Scaling’ a business means growing it significantly in a way that achieves greater profitability. By Dave Hickey F.C.A. When people talk about growing a business, what they actually mean is scaling it. Growth means having a higher turnover, whereas scaling is about that and widening profit margins. If your overheads increase at the same rate …
Once you’ve established your business and secured some loyal customers, growing to a scale where you can feel more secure requires a different mindset By Dave Hickey F.C.A. The Central Statistics Office reports that, pre-2020, about 17,500 businesses were started each year in Ireland and 16,200 ceased trading. Around one-third of the enterprises started in …
DHKN’s 2023 brochure outlines the general services we provide. For more in-depth information on some of our specialist areas such as Medical Professional, Charities, Credit Unions, etc. please contact us directly by email to Dave Hickey at dhickey@dhkn.ie
By Pamela Wynne You may not be considering disposing of your business right now or even in the short-term. However, you may need to move on from the business for many reasons and it’s good to have a plan as well as an understanding of what’s needed to make a successful sale. Buyers generally look …
By Dave Hickey For any business to move successfully from start-up to scale-up it needs to carefully navigate each stage of its growth cycle. So, being aware of which stage of the cycle the business is at, is itself a very important if, for example, if you’re looking to attract funding. The stages of the …
By Dave Hickey Every business should have a business plan – because a vision without a plan is just a dream! Unfortunately, despite the fact that many of the underlying businesses are viable, the vast majority of plans are hardly worth the paper they’re printed on. Most “bad” business plans share one or more of …
By Dave Hickey Recently someone asked me why she needed a business plan if she was getting all the funding she needed from friends and relatives. It appeared to me as if she was thinking of a business plan as just a fund-raising tool. In fact, a business plan is much more than that: It’s …
By Dave Hickey This is part of a piece I wrote almost two years ago about ‘staying on top of the numbers’. Too much of it is still relevant. In Ireland we’re great at keeping score. Whether it’s in sport, socially (whose round is it?) or in family life (whose turn to do the dishes?). …
KEEPING SCORE IS JUST AS IMPORTANT IN BUSINESS AS IN SPORT Read More »
