Swings + Roundabouts Autumn 2021

provide you with the services of a free mentor, with whom you can discuss your business issues. Last year, BMNZ waived its registration fee as part of the wider COVID-19 response, and you might still be able to get a mentor without paying a sign- up fee, if you hurry! You should also run your own needs analysis. This sounds very technical, but essentially it is just an overview of your business situation, with a view to identifying your obligations and requirements. For instance, in its simplest form, you might determine that you need another $25,000 to cover actual debt from last year and forecast losses in 2021. Once you know this, you can then break down this amount into smaller chunks ($25,000 is $500 per week), and start forming a plan around managing the smaller amounts of money, within shorter timeframes. The first question to ask is always whether you can cut costs in some way? Create a list of your expenses, and divide them into essentials and nice-to-haves. Review each of the nice-to-haves, and either cut-back or remove them entirely from your list. Also look at big-ticket items which you can defer until a more appropriate time, such as renovations or repainting. Once you have done this, then go through the list a second time, and figure out whether you can make savings on the essential items. Often, we are over-serviced on basic items, including phone, internet, and electricity. Work out what you are actually paying for, and whether it really meets your needs. Think ‘right size’. Use the SCAMPER principle. This is a really useful tool, which forces you to look closely at each expense item, and to ask whether there are alternative options. SCAMPER stands for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse / Re-engineer. The idea, in this case, is that you apply each of these approaches to an expense item, and see if you can come up with an alternative solution. For instance, you might be able to substitute a product or a supplier, or combine your resources with another provider. Don’t be afraid to re-negotiate with suppliers. Even approaching your landlord, explaining the current difficulties and asking for some form of relief can pay big dividends. Landlords don’t want to lose good stable tenants, and you may be able to negotiate (say) a lower rental rate for 12 months, until the situation stabilises. Your landlord will have a good idea of how difficult it might be to find an alternative tenant, and what the consequent financial loss might look like, so there will probably be some room to move if you can present a compelling case. Cost-cutting and budget-trimming are extremely important, but somewhere along the line you will probably want to make some more money as well, so (if you can’t ask your customers for more money!), start thinking about additional income- generating opportunities. A good place to start, is by talking with your existing customers. Listen to what they have to say, and see whether you can provide solutions to the things which bother them the most. Also, try suggesting ideas to them to see whether they are interested in things which you might be able to offer. There is an old adage that it costs ten times more to find a new customer than to keep an existing one. So, find ways to keep your customers after their children have left your early childhood centre. Is there a need for a breakfast club, or for after-school care, for primary-age school children? Holiday or weekend activities for kids? The most important thing in most parents’ lives is their children. So, what about teaming up with an educational psychologist, and offering transitional plans for children starting school, or study habit plans for older children? Maybe formal personality / strengths tests, so that parents can better understand, interact with, and support their children? These are premium products with high-value outcomes, so don’t be afraid to clip-the-ticket for $100 or more per family. If you sell 5 different services to 20 families over the course of the year, then you have just increased your income by $10,000, while providing something really worthwhile in return! How about working with a business which provides healthy snacks and treats for children? Right now, I am working with a vegan home-delivery start-up business which would just love to get on-going referrals from early childhood centres. And don’t forget time-honoured fundraisers like fashion shows (using a local fashion store to organise and manage the event), food parcel raff les (with donated goods), and family days! What about wrangling some free tickets and promotional items from each of your local sports franchises, and then raff ling them off each week! Finally, think about how you can continue to engage with your customers, if we ever face another lockdown. Staying relevant to your customers is extremely important, and it may result in prof itable spin-off programmes, under the right conditions. So, can you devise an online programme for families at your early childhood centre? Maybe stream a story each day, and run some activities aimed directly at the children. Maybe have an open forum for parents while the children are sleeping, or brief parents directly each day on a different at-home activity which they can do with their kids, to keep everyone occupied. If you have the scale to support this, then there is a great opportunity here for an early childhood centre chain to develop an online product, possibly leading to pay- per-view or subscription opportunities for rural and isolated families. Keep thinking outside-the-box until you find something which works for your centre! Lastly, keep watching for government assistance programmes which you can apply for. If the COVID-19 Business Continuity Support package becomes available again, then get in touch with me at philsales@iactltd.co.nz , and we can plan out your own business resilience strategy! About the author Phil Sales is specialist business coach, interested in 'cool stuff' in the business development sector. For more about Phil, see: https://iact15.wixsite.com/iactltd/who-we-are March 2021 { 25 }