For many sectors across the island, not least pharmaceutical, and our many food and drink exporters, uncertainly is now a factor when it comes to business planning. Trump’s newly imposed tariffs are a cause for concern, trading conditions are challenging, the impact of Ukraine and Gaza is being felt. There could be real consequences for local businesses – but the truth is – many businesses don’t yet know what the real impact will be, writes .Ross Boyd, founder and director of RBCA.
We do know there is plenty of conjecture, political leaders, business groups, economists often fear the worst – and yes, conditions are challenging with supply issues, rising operational costs, and burdensome tax rates, and so on. But many of these commentators are forgetting that owner managed businesses in Northern Ireland have resilience built into their DNA.
The NI Composite Economic Index, from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, reported that in Q4 last year, 52 per cent of our economic output came from our service sector, followed by 23 per cent from the public sector,14 per cent from production, 8 per cent from construction, and 2 per cent from agricultural.
In simple terms, we’re an economy that is built on exceptional talent providing competitive value through time and expertise, as opposed to physical products. Trump’s increasingly schizophrenic economic policy may have no bearing on most of our businesses here and encouraging any hysteria around the tariffs only makes it more difficult for owner managed businesses to keep their eye on the ball.
These businesses are the backbone of the local economy. They cannot afford to be distracted. Instead, trusted advisors should be guiding them on how to ensure they keep creating value, so they are primed to make the most of opportunities as they arise.
You see, service-based businesses operate in a supply and demand environment. When business owners know how to keep adding value to their customers, they will be better placed to maintain a healthy level of demand. Success will come down to three things – expertise, the experience and efficiency.
Positioning Expertise
The service-based proposition is built on selling specialist skills to customers – whether it is accountancy, graphic design, IT consultancy or even personal training. These services require expert knowledge and years of expertise. As a business in these categories, you are essentially selling your time, you must remember to shift your mindset from one that “sells time” to one that “sells value”. Of course, if business owners aren’t clear on their value, they will have a tricky time establishing their worth with customers and potential customers. My advice is to start here.
Prioritising the Customer Experience
Your client relationships are crucial, you need to invest in them every day. Part of this means having a team that does the same. Human capital is your number one asset. Organisations that prioritise diversity, inclusion, and flexibility, are proven to have higher retention – meaning quality skillsets stay with your business for longer, protecting your client experience. Customers want a relationship, and in my experience owner managed businesses in Northern Ireland are brilliant at relationship building.
Understanding and Improving Efficiency
Locally, service-based businesses must continue to be efficiency-minded. To many business owners it’s obvious. A restaurant owner doesn’t roster all of its staff during consistently quiet periods. We find that our clients see efficiency as common sense, we also recommend that they continue to leverage the digital transformation to uncover new opportunities to increase margins and deliver more for clients. For instance, earlier this year, RBCA invested £50,000 into AI software to automate a range of activities such as automating bookkeeping and generating reports and forecasts. This frees up the team to focus more of their time on servicing and consulting our clients – they can spend their time adding real value to their clients’ businesses.
Global events will continue to capture our attention, but focusing on providing value will always “trump” being distracted by the things outside of your control.
