The Importance of Strategy for Business Growth

Case Study

Situation & Opportunity

Who: $9.4M Adventure Based Tourism Company

Situation:

After four years of fairly flat sales and decreasing profits, this adventure-based tourism company was looking for ways to improve their profitability as well as understand the cash flow of their business. They saw a lot of opportunity in the marketplace to grow within their existing offerings; as with most adventure-based tourism companies though, they were burdened by the seasonality of the business and the cash implications this created.

They needed a strategy for business growth.

Opportunity:

To understand what opportunities existed for the company and develop a plan to capture these. Through the process there needed to be assurance that the weaknesses could be identified and overcome, particularly as it pertained to cash availability.

Business requirements

Understand the current business situation to determine where the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats existed.
Create a strategy for the future that strengthened existing business but also explored new opportunities.
Develop an executable plan from an operations and cash perspective that allows for a predictable and stable business model.

Objectives

Through this process we identified that there were plenty of opportunities. This included building awareness and increasing the customer base with the existing operations. It also involved looking to new markets that were similar but would decrease the seasonality of the business. The key here was to utilize the existing infrastructure and not increase costs so that profit could be maximized. We identified the biggest risk to the business was not having enough cash during the slower periods. Knowing this, we were aware we could take steps to minimize the risk during these timeframes.

Executing the Plan

Tools

Previous strategic and marketing plans → review to understand what the company had done in the past.
Historical monthly financial data → analyze to determine the seasonal flows of the business and use this to predict the future based upon planned metrics.
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats audit (SWOT) → conduct and share this to guide the owners and key individuals of the company.
Organisational plan → to understand which employees were imperative to the long-term success of the company.
Marketing agency engagement → work with an agency to incorporate goals and objectives into the client’s planning.
Financial Forecast → Create a forecast that incorporates operational metrics into long-term cash needs.

Implementation

Creation of a strategic planning document that identifies the long-term objectives and goals of the company.
Development of a monthly financial model that takes key performance indicators, sales plans, expected expenses and cash flow implications into account.
Monthly check-ins to analyze actual results against expectations and make adjustments to the business to optimize success.

Improvements

Engaged new market opportunities that minimized seasonal challenges associated with sales swings.
Improved understanding of cash flow so that cash could be maximized within the business.

Outcomes

The company was able to start growing sales significantly. In fact, sales growth became 15% over industry averages. First, we worked with the marketing company to help capture more clients to the existing business. We then started to expand the business in areas that drove sales and opportunities during the off-season. We determined that an operating line of credit would provide the required cash during the off-season. Our clear financial plan showed lenders that we had a strong understanding of the drivers and challenges of the business. Within two years all debt had been eliminated and the use of the line of credit became unnecessary due to the increase in cash and predictability of the business we created.

Financial

Captured and grew sales opportunities.
Maximized return on marketing investment.
Ensured cash was sufficient throughout the year.
Secured financing through a lender for an operating line of credit.

Marketing

Worked with a marketing company to determine what was truly driving the business.
Identified a new market that complemented the existing market and drove off-season business.