Service With a Smile: How Business Planning is Different for Service Companies
When your business involves service rather than products, how much difference does it make when you're planning its future? Whether for a formal business plan or just decisions made on a daily basis, service businesses need to handle those decisions differently than retail or wholesale companies.
Here's a quick look at these differences
Assets: In a retail business, a good portion of your assets are tied up in your company's inventory. That inventory loses value as it ages by becoming obsolete or unusable overall. When you provide services to customers, your assets are your people, who often still need to be paid, even when you don't have enough customers to keep them busy. Either asset costs you money, either by lost revenue or increased overhead. If you let employees go during quiet times, you may have a hard time finding qualified people when things get busy again.
Cash Flow: Whether you're selling goods or services, you need to try to keep money coming in consistently. For both situations, this can often be handled by offering a sale or coupons to keep customers actively buying from your business, but you also need to manage your supply chain whether it's sufficient products or staff, to keep customers' orders fulfilled as quickly as possible. Keeping your customers waiting for service often results in them choosing to do business with another company instead of waiting, costing you future revenue.
Differentiation: What makes your business different than the other service businesses that are in town? For a service business, this often includes a much stronger focus on reviews and referrals by going above and beyond than for sales. Does your company offer 24-hour emergency service? Perhaps you have a dedication to make sure the customer is satisfied with every interaction with your business. Whatever it is, make sure to stay on top of it.
By taking the time to really think about how you should plan your service business, you can ensure that you'll be able to keep business rolling through any number of difficulties. Not sure where to start? AccountRely's business services division has any number of business professionals available to help you through the process. Please feel free to contact us today and discover the AccountRely difference for yourself!
