BUSINESS CONSULTING
We gather and analyze information with the aim of improving performance and operational efficiency. Our services are designed to provide insight and strategic advice to ensure your business is running at its best. We strive to identify opportunities for improvement, offering solutions that enhance productivity and boost your bottom line. Let us help you transform your operations, so you can focus on what you do best – growing your business.
Business consulting can be viewed as a comprehensive service in which all external and internal factors of a company are analyzed.
The Argus Group provides some of the following activities for the client:
- Development of business models,
- Improvement and optimization of organizations,
- Connecting start-up companies and communicating with private equity and venture capital funds,
- Connecting investors with business owners,
- Assistance in establishing business contacts with legal and natural persons,
- Searching for potential investments,
- Creating long-term development strategies.
We help you prepare well for the next business cycle.
Business consultants provide valuable information and guidance to company management on how to improve performance and efficiency.
Based on the results, we present the best opportunities to our clients and suggest activities for improving business and strengthening their market position. We develop long-term plans, strategies for more effective management.
The process of analyzing the current state, analyzing the business and proposing future optimal activities is individually tailored to each client, to stabilize the company’s overall business as well as possible.
Business Consultant
Your total sales have decreased, your products are not achieving competitiveness in the market. Market position and profits have declined. You’re experiencing increased pressure on cash flow. It’s time to engage a collaborator – a business consultant.
Companies, first and foremost, in order to stay in the market, must be as flexible as possible (responding to customer demand), more innovative (investing in new services and products), and in today’s world, risk-oriented (economic and health pandemics can severely negatively impact your business).
A company must keep an eye on what the competition is doing, what companies are doing better, what they are doing worse, how they manage their customers, what their sales price policy is, where and how they advertise, and whether they are doing it well.
“The competitor never sleeps.”
Business consulting is most effectively used when the organization is “eating itself”, when the organization is “chasing its tail”, when people are not adding value, and when the curve starts to turn upside down.
Similarly, when organizations and their management need to plan changes, then a business consultant is the ideal solution. Owners and management thus gain access to specialized knowledge and best practices (best practice) because business consultants have the knowledge and skills that benefit the company in achieving new business opportunities. Or for solving troubles. It is always good to have an “external and independent” advisor (person) by your side, to broaden the view and thinking “outside the box” of current business perspective (out of the box thinking).
Financial Consultant
In many cases, a financial consultant is the same person as a business consultant. But you can also engage a financial consultant as a temporary solution. When is it necessary to engage an experienced financial expert for quick and efficient solving of various business problems?
During certain periods, companies face the problem of management’s inexperience in organizational change, refinancing obligations, or buying another company. In that case, engaging a business (financial) consultant is a good decision, as it can solve your problems concisely and clearly.
In such circumstances, there is a clear lack of managers with full practical experience: a professional who can “walk” into a situation, quickly determine what needs to be done, prepare a plan and implement it within a set time frame and budget – a consultant with managerial experience, defined tasks, and a timeframe for their execution.
A financial consultant is a person with rich business experience and knowledge, whom you can engage short-term, whether it comes to the implementation and management of a specific project, managing business transformations, or crisis situations. After successfully completed projects or company restructuring, financial consultants become “strategic” advisors.
They can help you understand where exactly your money is going, and answer the frequent question of business owners and directors: “Where is my money leaking?”
When to engage a financial consultant (preferably one who has undergone several restructurings)?
- Vacant management positions
- Need to manage complex and strategically important projects
- The business is in crisis
Advantages and qualities of a financial consultant:
- Knowledge and competence – highly qualified individuals who apply their experience and numerous skills and knowledge from the first day of their engagement.
- Speed and simplicity – no employment procedures or termination of employment contracts. Typically, financial consultants have their own consulting companies.
- Efficient and effective – there is no “breaking in” period. Given that they operate at the management level, the financial consultant has the authority to effectively implement changes within the company.
- Management team – as a mentor and educator, the financial consultant transfers their knowledge and skills to the team in the company that hires them.
Organization
For properly established mission and vision, it’s important to accurately determine the industry in which the organization operates. A successfully formed organizational structure should guide personal ambitions and creativity, instill belief in people/employees and, after all, believe in these statements itself.
The term “organization” has multiple meanings:
- In a general sense, an organization is a conscious association of people whose aim is to fulfill certain tasks with the least possible effort in any area of work and life.
- “Organization” can also denote an activity (organizing) or the state achieved by organizing (order, structure, system).
- In economics, we denote by “organization” a systematic and planned arrangement of relationships between people and objects (things) with the purpose of achieving an economic (production) goal.
Most entrepreneurs (owners and management) consider and conclude about the organization: “My main goal is to secure as many contracts as possible, ensure salaries for employees, and make a profit”. Organization doesn’t represent any problem, as they can always somehow manage, come up with something, and easily solve any arisen problem.
If we’ve negotiated a new job, our intention is to hire more people to get the job done. If we need to turn more towards the market, we’ll hire someone else in sales and development. And for some jobs, we’ll hire external people – business consultants. And that’s it, no philosophy involved.
Organization can be analyzed through several areas:
- Organization at the company level – business organization and organization of business and production processes.
- Organization at the job level – roles and responsibilities of the job itself.
- Organization at a personal level– organization of individual’s jobs within the organization.
Business Plan
A business plan presents the current situation and strategic determinants of a company’s development. It also shows and defines projections of profit or free cash flow from operations.
When drafting a business plan, it is important to start from realistic circumstances and facts, as well as realistic assumptions for the future.
A business plan must include some of the following categories, whether you are seeking new financial resources or selling the company.
Pay attention to the following categories, which are an integral part of a quality business plan:
- Company Information –goals and past strategy of the company
- Human Resources – who makes up the management, the way of managing in the company Description of product/service, sales, and distribution channels
- Description of product/service, sales, and distribution channels
- Market –what is your target market (definition and description), market characteristics
- Customers – who are your customers, how many are there, which products they buy and what activity they are engaged in, the percentage of sales to the largest customers, what is your share of exports in sales
- Suppliers – who are your suppliers, what is the percentage of procurement from the largest suppliers and what does your company buy from them, the ratio of domestic and foreign suppliers
- Competition –who are your competitors and what is their current market share, what are their basic characteristics, what is their market positioning compared to your company
- Market Environment – describe the factors that influence the development of the market or could be limiting factors, macroeconomic movements in the country and environment
- The impact of individual risks on the company’s operations
- SWOT analysis
- Strategy for further development
- Financial analysis – revenue projection, expenses, and free cash flow.
Business Model
A business model in a company encompasses all activities that describe how the company will behave in the market. The business model transcends the boundaries of the company itself – it includes all companies with which we must cooperate on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis.
A business model is a plan for a company on how it will compete with competitors, suppliers, but also manage customers. The aim and function of every business model is that it is sustainable and profitable.
Some characteristics of business models:
- Business venture – much more than just the idea that a business model has its “head and tail”
- Innovation in creation –a competitive advantage is created compared to others (non-innovative)
- Definition of the business model – it is defined in the early stages, steps are determined
The value chain shows how the product moves from raw material to the end user – it helps the company identify opportunities that can improve its competitive strategies. Two mistakes in understanding and defining business models: wrong cost estimate and wrong customer estimate.
The financial advisor is in many cases the same person as the business advisor. Only that you can engage a financial advisor as a temporary solution. When it is necessary to engage an experienced, financially versed, expert for quick and efficient solving of various business problems.
In certain periods, companies face the problem that their managers lack the experience, skills, or knowledge needed to manage special situations – whether the organization is changing, it is necessary to refinance existing obligations or they are going to buy another company. Then a financial advisor is a good decision because it simply and shortly solves your problems.
In such circumstances, there is a clear shortage of managers with full practical experience: a professional who can “walk into” the situation, quickly determine what needs to be done, prepare a plan and implement it within a given time frame and budget – a consultant with managerial experience, defined tasks and a time frame for their execution.
A financial advisor is a person with rich business experience and knowledge, which you can engage in the short term whether it is the implementation and management of a specific project or managing business transformations, but also crisis situations. After a successful project or restructuring of the company, financial advisors become “strategic” advisors.
They can help you understand where your money is actually going or give an answer to the frequent question of company owners and directors: “Where is my money leaking?”
When to engage a financial advisor (preferably one who has undergone several restructurings)?
- Vacancies in managerial positions,
- It is necessary to manage complex and strategically important projects,
- The business is in crisis.
Advantages and qualities of a financial advisor:
- Knowledge and competences – highly qualified individuals who apply their experience and numerous skills and knowledge from the first day of engagement.
- Speed and simplicity – there is no employment procedure or termination of the employment contract. Typically, financial advisors have their own business consulting companies
- Effective and efficient – there is no “settling in” to the job. Since he acts at or close to the level of a senior management member, the financial advisor has the authority to act effectively in implementing changes within the company.
- Management team –as a mentor and educator, the financial advisor transfers his knowledge, skills to the team in the company that hires him.