Co-Create Matters

In a discussion this month about marketing we realised we talk very little about Co-Create despite it being our core differentiating product.  We also believe it is the service that makes the most difference to clients.  In short we need to shout about it louder.  We will attempt to explain why.

As business owners we want to be successful.  There are plenty of stories of business failure, we want to avoid that fate.  But what causes success in business?  If it were only as simple as working hard, most small businesses would be a runaway success but the truth is most struggle.

We could never say there is one thing that ensures success and we have yet to find a formula but having worked with hundreds and hundreds of small businesses our best articulation is this.

Excitement + Working on the Business + Consistency = Success

We built our Co-Create service around this formula and we can see that where clients embrace it success generally follows.  The sad fact is that even a relatively small number of our clients fully engage.  We have realised we need to do more to get people excited about what is on offer.  Co-Create is our accounting practice’s core differentiating product.  People need to know how it works and why it produces results.

Excitement

Loving your business, your product or service and believing in what you are up to is so important.  You need that belief and energy to sell, to recruit, to motivate your team, to problem solve, to create plans.  Without it nothing will work, it is the wind beneath the wings of your business.  

Most businesses start on a wave of inspiration and optimism.  One of the core intentions of Co-Create is to reconnect people to that inspiration and excitement.  We take time to acknowledge accomplishments, we review the vision and the mission of the business.  

It is important however this doesn’t become an exercise in positive thinking.  We also need to problem solve so that we can move past the issues that are dogging our business.  

And finally we need to stop and open our eyes to the opportunities.  They are there if we can only see them. 

Working on the Business

Our job is to build a business that works.  The problem is that our other job, which is delivering our products or services to clients and customers, keeps getting in the way.  In fact it gets in the way so much it is easy to forget the other one altogether.  

Successful business people work on the business.  They problem solve and implement solutions.  They fine tune, they chip away at the dysfunctionality of the machine until it is reliable at sales and delivery.

A Co-Create meeting is one time in a working week where you can guarantee to spend time working on your business.  The business owners that we really see succeeding take the insights, advice, ideas, coaching from the Co-Creates and implement them in the business.  

Consistency

I am often asked by prospective clients: What will we get out of our Co-Create meetings?  The answer I always give is that most of the value in the meetings is simply derived from having the meeting.  It is possible we will deliver some pearl of wisdom, reveal some blind spot, or provide a tip that will elevate profits.  

However that is not really the point.  The most important value Co-Create delivers is to provide the space and structure for business owners to reconnect to what motivates them and for them to work on their business consistently and reliably.  We often say the most important item on the agenda is the date of the next meeting because that ensures the work continues consistently.

Success

We haven’t talked enough about Co-Create success stories.  I would forgive people for wondering if the service works.  We are turning a new leaf and starting to share these stories in an anonymised form to protect confidentiality.  We could never claim these successes were ours.  In every case 100% credit remains with the business owners involved who took the actions to produce the results.  However we also know the Co-Create meetings were an important part of them taking action.

Case Study 1

A client in a service industry had great sales but consistently struggled for profit.  We identified scope creep (employees delivering more than in the contracts) and breakdowns in delivery as major contributing factors.  We worked with them to introduce a protocol around timing of project meetings and standardised agendas for those meetings.  As a result the client went from being loss making to profit making.  Belief in their business returned and they are getting ready to expand.

Case Study 2

Our client is in retail, in a Co-Create meeting we started looking at why Gross Profit dropped in a quarter.  We realised that it was related to Christmas discounts.  This led them to recognising the hidden cost that discounts can be (https://co-accounting.co.uk/blog/discounts-beware).  We started reporting Discounts in the Profit and Loss Reports to provide visibility in the business.  They reworked their discounts.  Their business went on to have their most profitable year.

Case Study 3

Our client is in a service industry.  The sector was very depressed and the business was struggling for sales, in fact our client was close to closing the business.  Because the sector was so depressed their clients had stopped outsourcing the service offered by our client instead bringing it ‘in-house’.  In the Co-Create we realised this led to a different kind of problem that our client could solve with their skills.  The 'in house' teams were generally quite inexperienced, and the businesses they served were suffering as a result.  They needed guidance and support.  Out of the conversation our client developed a new service which they sold not by 'project' but on a retainer basis, designed to support and guide in-house teams.  They took this idea to market and got very positive feedback.  Perhaps more importantly they have gone from being resigned about their business to being energised.  Perhaps not surprisingly sales generally have now picked up and they are busy implementing their new business model.

Case Study 4

We started working with our client at a ‘make or break’ moment.  They could see that if sales remained the same, they would not be able to support themselves and would have to seek employment.  We identified inconsistent marketing as the core problem in their sales.  They gave themselves sales targets, fixed a marketing plan and started to implement it consistently.  They have, as a result, tripled the size of their business and now employ a team of four.

Case Study 5

The business had two owners and had been struggling for some time.  The dynamic between the owners had become the problem.  We helped both parties realise it was time to part ways.  We helped facilitate this separation.  The business that continued has now taken off and is now employing its first employee.

Case Study 6

We were approached by a collective of employees who wanted to set up in business.  They were nervous of everything this might entail and open that they lacked the skils of business owners.  They were looking for guidance.  

They have now successfully established a sustainable business.  They have become proficient in many of the skills needed.  They are no longer worried it will fail.

Case Study 7

Our client had the kind of success many business owners aspire to; one that is profitable.  However it had two major problems.  Firstly they could see its sustainability starting to erode.  They had a strong and stable client list but were failing to bring in new clients.  Eventually as clients moved on their revenue would dwindle.  They were also dissatisfied with revenue being so closely linked to their time and their output as business owners and being a business focused on impact in the world they were frustrated that its impact was limited.  Secondly and most difficult of all, they had become disenchanted with their work.

Our Co-Create meetings gave them confidence that making the leap to a new kind of business model was not a whim but a necessity.  They got clarity about the resources they had to make the leap and the sales targets they would need to meet in what was in many ways a new business.

They are well on the way to establishing this new business and most importantly excited and energised by what the future holds.

We hope you will agree, Co-Create matters.