Looking to calculate the health of your business?

Can people can clearly describe your business purpose and vision? Do you know the key things that give your business a competitive edge? How do you measure your sales and marketing efforts? Can you translate key financials into KPIs that are relevant and understandable?

Introducing Centigrade, a free and easy-to-use, practical, online tool that helps you benchmark your business against other successful Kiwi organisations.

Valued at $49, Centigrade has been exclusively developed by The Icehouse to help Kiwi businesses quickly assess where they sit against the five key areas of:

• Purpose

• Sales and Marketing

• Finance

• Systems

• Team

After completing the short but incisive multiple choice survey, the results will be analysed by The Icehouse’s team of experts to assess any areas of the business in which you might need help.

On completion, you will receive your benchmarking report and follow-up call to review and determine if an Icehouse business coach can help you in any way. Discuss your options around possible coaching and advisory services to help plug any gaps, strengthen weak points and help you gain clarity around present and future goals – and, most importantly, calculate how to get to where you want to be, faster.

Challenges are highlighted, so where can I get advice on a solution?

We’re past the ‘new normal’. It’s time to think about jumping into a growth mindset and, as your business grows in complexity and at rapid pace, your key challenges will shift as your business moves through the various stages of growth you’re looking for.

‘Is my business healthy?’ is something that owners ask themselves every day. However, it’s such an unquantifiable concept; ‘Am I making money?’, ‘Is my team happy?’, ‘Are my customers satisfied with the service?’.

Centigrade can help identify weaknesses in a business and address the major strategic challenges facing SMEs today, while asking trusted advisors and mentors to provide a ready-made framework for improvement.

Business coaching starts with an initial planning day and goal setting. A coach will ask you ‘Where do you want to be?’ and ‘Where do you want to get to?’ Before reviewing your financials, your existing business plan and business structure, and discussing your current priorities and focus, before expanding out to pinpointing your goals, values and vision for the next decade.

21% of owners rate themselves as the biggest obstacle to success, while 26% lack the confidence to grow their business successfully. Maybe you’re feeling stuck or overwhelmed, trying to figure out how to solve a problem, or looking for a sounding board to bounce around strategy – we all need reassurance that we’re doing the right thing. 

Good coaches understand what it takes to make a business grow – and how difficult it can be. ‘When it's your own company, it's your house that's on the line, your family’s wellbeing and so on. So, I like to think [we] bring both sides to any challenge – knowing how to grow a business, how to do it well and fast,’ says Icehouse coach, Kevin D’Ambros-Smith.

Launch Centigrade now.

For information on how The Icehouse's capability building programmes, workshops and advisory can help your business, click here.

For more business ownership and leadership advice, check out more of our blogs.

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