Securing your foundations

In the first of a three-part series, David Smithson-Rudd sets out how Consult DSR can support you in ensuring that your business has the fundamentals in place

On any given day you’ll wake up, slowly drift over to the kettle, brew a restorative tea or coffee, make yourself look presentable, sort your family out, and then head to work. More often than not, large chunks (if not all) of your working day have already been planned. That meeting with a supplier that’s been pushed back a few times already, three customer meetings, two employee reviews and about fifteen minutes to go through your emails. Sound about right?

Not busy enough? OK then, I’m guessing that you also need to arrange for someone to fix the leaky sink in the customer toilet, re-order the giant drum of coffee for the staff kitchen despite only providing a new one two weeks ago, and figure out why the photocopier keeps adding splodges of black ink to everything it prints.

Stepping out to examine your business

The day-to-day operational tasks of a business often take over, as without someone minding these bits and bobs, things start to slip. However, there are things you know you probably need to look at, but because they’re not presenting an immediate (and crucially, visible) problem, they get pushed aside. You’ll deal with them once you’ve updated the accounting software, factored the bank holiday into the next stock order, and sorted Janet’s birthday present.

Some things don’t present as urgent, but they can cause significant issues if left unattended. I group these into three categories; in this first part, we’re focusing on the fundamentals.

The must-haves, the “can’t go without”, the “I might get fined if these are wrong”

We’ll assume that you have the right number of people working in your business to achieve your immediate and short-term aims. They’ve all been turning up to work, they haven’t dropped any balls (that you’re aware of) and no one has reported any work-related injuries. Good start. Are you confident that this will continue? No one can predict the future, but one thing you can look at is whether your business is operating on solid foundations from employment, health & safety and information security perspectives. Questions to ask are:

·      Does everyone have a contract in place?

·      Does it meet the needs of the business?

·      Are we up to code from a health & safety point of view?

·      Are our employees clear on their own health and safety responsibilities?

·      How are we storing client and employee data?

There are quite a few more questions that all business leaders should be reflecting on, but the above list gives you a snapshot of the topics to be considered.

Issues with any of the above can remain dormant for a prolonged period, before appearing suddenly – usually at the worst possible time.

From sand to concrete

So what’s the solution, especially when your to-do list is already full? A business health check (or ‘MOT’) report from Consult DSR can look at all these areas for you, with a relatively low time commitment required placed on you. You will receive an in-depth review of your fundamentals, with areas of excellence highlighted and points of improvement detailed, in order of risk priority.

If you need a quick turnaround, the report can be ready as quickly as 7 working days after our initial discovery conversation (subject to availability), while our standard service will see you reviewing the results within a month. You will be supported at the end of the process with a video call to talk through the results and recommendations.

If this service has struck a chord and you’re considering taking the plunge, I’d love to hear from you. You can book a free 30-minute video call here or email me at david@consultdsr.co.uk.

In the next part of this series, due to be published on Thursday 3rd April 2025, we will examine the next category of important topics that founders need to be looking at, and how Consult DSR can support. Never fear, you’ll have plenty of time to figure out what Janet would like for her birthday.

Update 03/04/2025: Part two is available here