I want to delegate more, though fear that I would lose control of my business. Is there an easy answer?

Before we can delegate we have to think of others and their needs. We must bear in mind that they are looking for guidance and not control. As business leaders, our responsibility is to give them this.

One of the failings of management is that they do the easy stuff and leave the awkward stuff.

If it is not delegated, it does not get done. Managers must remember that our colleagues and employees look at what we do, and they are not going to respect, listen or cooperate with us if they feel that we are wasting time.

It is also vital that we are not seen to be doing only those tasks that carry less responsibility. Any communication needs to be recorded and visited regularly, so that the delegation can be seen to be planned and controlled.

If we do not follow up regulary, the “If they can’t be bothered, why should I?” attitude could be quickly adopted.

Canvass opinion and listen. Once you have listened and discussed, you can come upw with a strategy that fulfils your requirements, though makes your colleagues and employees feel it was the idea.

Be prepared to train, and accept the job may not be done the way you would do it. Always be ready to truly acknowledge that someone may be better than you.

Remember to encourage feedback on your performance and to listen to it. Always ensure that you have a meeting on a positive note. Even tough meetings can achieve this if the recipient is made fully aware of the problem and offered to help with the solution.

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How do I select the best computer system for my business needs?

When deciding which computer system would be best for your business, the starting point has to be the end product.

What information you do require to make an informed decision? All to frequently, companies invest in do-everything systems that produce a myriad of reports, all of which are largely ignored.

Yet some of the most successful businessmen I have met are information junkies.

It is through careful and professional analysis of reports that managers can adjust their business models to suit the trends in the market. Regular information could help to identify opportunities that may otherwise have been missed.

So having decided on the information required, you must identify the person with the necessary skills to supply the system with accurate information. There is a phrase used in business: garbage in – garbage out. The computer package is only as good as the information entered into it.

There are three basic steps to ensuring that you get the right information to make the right decisions.

Make sure that your professional advisers are able to understand the information required from, and provided by, the software. Once understood, they can then advise as to what the information means to your business.

Decide what skill sets are needed to analyse the information.

If the business is to maximise on the investment, ensure that your professional advisers are regularly offering advice on the information produced by the software so that opportunities (or problems) can be recognised quickly.

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How much should I be paying for outside business advice and how do I know it’s the correct advice?

As a business grows it may well outgrow its professional advisers. At start-up stage a business requires very basic levels of service.

The level and sophistication of these services will change over time, and the smaller one-man band cannot provide these.

You should, therefore, look closely at the firm providing the advice and the rane of services or products it has to offer. Does the firm have separate departments offering specialist advice, or is it run by just one person?

You should be aware that one person may not be able to keep up with all the legislation and complexities of modern business.

How pro-active is your adviser and how quickly do they respond to your queries?

This will give an indication as to how organised they are and the efficiency of their business processes. Does the lead adviser have any support? Be wary if you feel they have little or no back-up.

Knowing how much to pay for outside advice is a major issue for businesses and the source of much confusion.

How can two firms offer the same service but the fees be so radically different? Remember that the offering of the service and its delivery are mutually exclusive events.

Use some logic here, if you want good-quality advice this will come at a cost. The firm offering advice should have well qualified and trained staff in order to deliver on the promises made.

If we say that the average BMW dealership mechanic costs £80 per hour, and use this as a benchmark, then I would suggest that an accountant quoting £2,000 to cover the whole of your business and personal financial affairs (equating to around 25 hours a year)would be nowhere near enough time to do the job properly.

Therefore the advice you are getting is probably not worth paying for, which is what the majority of customers who come to us believe.

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Where do I go from here in building my business? I have got it to a certain point and yet don’t seem to be able to take it further forward and develop it into the business I envisage it should be

This comes about through what I call building up clutter in your business life. I am yet to come across a businessman who started a business to become an administrator – they set up a business because they believe they had a product or service that was better than the competition. This is “entrepreneurial flair”.

As the business grows they get involved in the administration –something for which they were never trained. This could take up 80 per cent of their time, yet they should be spending that time with customers.

The businesses that get through this ceiling are the ones which are run by people who recognise this and bring in professional managers to run the business process.

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I find that advice on preparing a budget or a plan is too general, and makes it impossible to plan for my business because it is so different from all others. Can you help?

Everybody sees their business or industry as unique to themselves and this probably is the case.

The point they are missing, however, is that the plan is not set in stone, to be adhered to vigorously. The plan is a basic map. There are basic rules that can be applied to all businesses. The hardest part of the plan is the sales line but unless people are given targets, how can you assess the individual’s performance?

By planning year on year you build up a profile of your business more based on fact than gut instinct.

If you are going to Spain you don’t just get in the car and drive south, you get a map and refer it to it regularly. This should be the same with your business plan.

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