As discussed in the last post, having a clear business focus is a good thing. However, as is often with good things, they are hard to attain, especially when that thing is immaterial. Indeed, companies often spend millions of pounds on the implementation of complex business strategies, that claim to ‘focus’ employees’ efforts, but time and again they have very little actual effect.

For those of us who don’t have millions of extra pounds to throw away on some giant restructuring effort, it may often feel like there are few resources available that assist in the development of a business focus. This is a myth, there are plenty of ways that a firm can define their focus, but all of them require time and effort. Below you will find one process that we think is particularly effective for finding your focus or your edge, the area where you can make the most money. If the process works for you, it should be possible to cut estimating costs for contracts. It will also help you to consolidate areas where you are strong and not to waste time trying to compete in areas of relative weakness. To do this:

1. Take an accurate version of your corporate records and analyse the historical performance of your business. Focus on specific jobs and compare the relative profitability’s of these different jobs.
2. Along with this information, look specifically at the strengths and experience levels of your managers and general staff. Look at who ran the jobs that returned the most revenue and also look at the types of jobs that they ran, to determine whether there is a correlation between the type of job they do and the returns that they make.
3. After completing these previous steps, it should be possible to define your best business type and it is this type that you want to focus on.
4. Research your own local market and assess the opportunities business priorities. We would suggest that you have a two-pronged focus, one focus being on jobs that have a lower profit margin but generate cash relatively quickly. A second focus should be on higher profit margin work for the long term.
5. Finally, define your marketing focus according to your best business requirements for both the short and long-term work and synthesize this with the work that is available in your local area.

It is important to not see this process as restrictive. Generally two or three areas of focus will emerge from this process and they will usually be linked. Once this process is complete, shape your marketing and communications strategy so that you can more clearly utilize the information that you have gained about yourself and the local area. What should result is that you will secure, fewer but more suitable tenders, with a greater chance of success in maintaining business and a higher conversion rate.