Know your market – study the market, understand the market highs and lows and what drives the wider market. Understanding this allows the business to perform more effectively by expanding in the good times and reducing operations in the lean times.
Know your business – your business and your market will constantly be changing. Understanding the business will allow effective changes to be made quickly, which will improve the resilience of the business by limiting risk and exposure, and ultimately loss in tough operating conditions.
Know your finances – plan, budget and cash flow forecast constantly. Continually updating these key areas will give a good early warning system of potential problems which may be looming on the horizon.
Consistently measuring business performance to realise ‘kaizen’ (continuous improvement).