Blog
Welcome to my Blog Page. These posts seek to cover the broad panoply of issues, conundrums and thoughts that occupy the professional service entrepreneur’s mind.
A combination of extracts from my guides and current musings (often provoked by recent happenings at the great companies I now advise to), my aim is to inform and motivate all those who seek to build high performing teams and successful businesses.
I also enjoy responding to specific reader questions … so please feedback and let me know where you would like my mental meanderings to wander to next.
The inaugural Five-Year Entrepreneur Retreat (July 2014)
It feels like it has been ages since I last posted here … and that it is because an age, or certainly a number of months, have indeed passed. There are some mitigating factors. I have – as many of you know – a pretty busy and eclectic ‘existence’ nowadays. I am privileged to be […]
Planning versus Doing – Getting the Balance Right
Whilst in a previous blog, I hope I have achieved my initial aim of convincing you that a plan is necessary, there is – perhaps – a more interesting question of proportionality here. That is, just how much time should be spent on this, how detailed a plan do you need? Planning versus Doing – […]
Business Planning
Welcome to the latest blog in my series on building a successful consulting business. In this piece, I will be looking at business planning. It is an extract from Guide 03 (Business Planning) of the ‘Five-Year Entrepreneur Series’. This set of articles looks at why having a plan, and a planning capability, is so fundamental […]
The Five-Year Entrepreneur Retreat 2014
This idea came about some time back when then earliest readers of the Series asked me if I was planning any events. Truth be told I wasn’t initially … but after a further survey of the 5YE membership revealed a real appetite for such a forum … planning got underway. Who is it for? […]
What makes a great professional service firm website? Ten considerations …
I have yet to write my planned guide on ‘Marketing’ … albeit it will most certainly be one of the next set I do scribe … as prioritised by the reader poll on the site. The reason for this blog, however, is because the topic of website overhaul has been a ‘hot topic’ for many […]
A look back at 2013 … Win Often!
In these last few working days before Christmas, entrepreneurs and owner/managers across the world are to be found madly running around in attempt to put a tidy line under the year … ensuring all those client deadlines are met, finances submitted and the myriad of internal ‘we must complete by the end of the year’ […]
Does your company have value (and values)?
Additional Value Considerations In previous blog postings, we have looked now at all the elements of a company’s value that you, as a directing owner, have real influence over. In summary, you increase your firm’s value by growing profit and by embedding the ‘multiple enhancing’ capabilities (which make such profit growth sustainable). There are, […]
When is your business saleable and who is buying?
In previous articles, we have explored the multiple aspects of a professional service firm’s value. In this blog, I answer the fundamental questions ‘when is your business saleable?’ and ‘who is buying?’. It is an extract from Guide 02 (Fundamental Components of Value) of the ‘Five-Year Entrepreneur Series’. When is your business saleable? The topic […]
Typical Multiple Values of Professional Service Firms
Welcome to the latest blog focused on the topic of building a successful consulting business. In a previous blog, I explored the concept of a multiple in the context of the classic firm valuation formula (EBITDA * Multiple). In this short article, I look at some typical multiple values. It is an extract from Guide […]
Organising your consulting firm for success
When I started Moorhouse Consulting in 2004, I set out with a deliberate intent to build a company that could – at least as a strategic option – release equity value within five years of formation. As I cover in my Guide 03, this objective was a clearly stated one within my inaugural Business Plan (penned […]
The ‘Multiple’ component of a firm’s valuation
So, having in previous articles, covered the importance of profit as a core component of value, let’s turn now to the ‘Multiple’ component of the typical valuation formula. As I mentioned in an earlier piece, once profitability is under control this should be the key aspect of value on which you turn your managerial focus. Of […]
Measuring Utilisation
Following on from my previous blog, it should be becoming clear by now that setting, and then managing towards, the right utilisation target(s) for your business is a key management issue. The topic can be obfuscated with multiple definitions and treatments; as such, you should aim for two principles when you discuss utilisation within your […]
Optimising your Profit
So, improving profitability is about managing your margin, productivity and leverage in an optimal, balanced way. But, what does this mean in practice? Let’s take each in turn. Firstly, margin. The truth is that margin, in a business that sells people’s time, is primarily about productivity and leverage (as the main cost will be salaries […]
Profitability explained … to owners of professional service firms
Profitability Explained It should be clear to you from my previous blog posts, if indeed it needed reinforcement, that profitability (and profit growth thereafter) needs to become your fixation if you are ever to build a company with value. As the old maxim goes: Revenue is Vanity, Profit is Sanity, Cash is Reality. In […]
A Value Map
In this relatively short blog (excuse me … the sun is shining!) … I just wanted to share with you the simple concept/tool of a ‘Value Map’ in the context of a professional service business. There are many ways of coming at the question of where value lies in a professional services business. In the […]
How to value a professional services business
How to value a professional services business … Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. You’ve got to get the fundamentals down because otherwise the fancy stuff isn’t going to work. Randy Pausch A cautionary foreword … This article dwells on the topic of value specifically as it refers to the financial price a buyer would […]
Sustaining yourself on the entrepreneurial journey
So you have made the decision to take the journey. Maybe you are already well and truly on it? If so, the more important topic is how to sustain yourself (and, indirectly therefore, those you lead) en route. Only by giving concerted thought to this dimension will you arrive at the finish post in one […]
How do you earn the right to charge premium rates?
In reply to a recent blog post, one of the 5YE Community Members (Ian) raised the following question … What I would be keen to get your perspective on is how you feel you go about differentiating your professional services firm, which is ultimately selling professionals’ time under a brand banner, from a firm that […]
Starting your own business? Bear in mind the ‘Important Others’.
If you are in the final/serious stages of considering starting-up your own professional service firm, this is a really important blog post. I am not sure I thought about the issue of ‘Important Others’ enough when I set off on my entrepreneurial journey and I very nearly paid for this lack of foresight. Don’t do […]
Do entrepreneurs need to have a ‘love of people’?
Welcome to the latest blog in my series on building a successful consulting business. In this piece, I address the topic of ‘Love of People’ – as another important consideration to weigh up if you are considering starting up your own professional service company. ‘Love of people’ may seem to some readers a pretty florid […]