LH Group is a firm that helps you build your financial position by making your business more valuable and more profitable. To do that we've developed a specific and purposeful 10 step process to help grow your business, improve your lifestyle and increase your profits significantly. View the ten setps above to see how we work with you to develop the true potential of your greatest asset:

1. A preliminary assessment
To gauge the level of results you can expect from your business, we'll ask you to complete a preliminary questionnaire. Using software tools designed to identify and quantify your potential for profit improvement, we're able to tell you just how much improvement you could expect using the techniques and resources available to us, as members of the Results Accountants Network™. Visit the area called A special Network in our About Us section to find out more about what that membership means to you. You will be considered for our business development processes if your potential for improvement is significant - typically in the order of approximately $100,000. Now before you think - "my business couldn't improve by that much", most of our clients are genuinely surprised and pleased when the analysis shows their potential for added value.

2. An initial consultation ensures there's a match
During this step we'll present you with a summary of the improvement potential within your business. You'll see firsthand some of the processes and approaches we use to work with our clients to begin improving the business and its return on investment. When you decide to continue with the process you receive a copy of your customised Business Development Program.

3. A more detailed investigation maps a course of action
Included in your Business Development Program is a more detailed 'Business Development Questionnaire'. This gives you instant insights into the challenges you face and what needs to be done to positively deal with them. Together we can then identify the strategic opportunities that come from the way you do business - your business processes - and provide you with a documented analysis. This will help you see and develop a course of action made all that much clearer with the next step. ...

4. A planning session sets your strategic vision
Many business owners do not have a clear vision for the future of their business. To really achieve improvement it's important to turn your vision into a crystal clear picture. From there you can work back to where you are today, identifying all the strategies you need to implement to achieve your goals. We use a planning session for that process. At your planning session our team reviews with you the key issues you face and the potential solutions. Here you really start to see how the process comes together. ...

5. A plan of action clarifies goals
We've found clients relate better to 'action' plans rather than lengthy, heavily worded business plans. You'll receive a results orientated action plan that's easy to relate to and easy to implement. This plan provides you with the basis for moving forward with your business development. With specific goals and target dates, you and your team have a clear direction and more likelihood of success.

6. Involving your customers to guide your direction
To really create a successful business you need to know exactly what your customers want, and what they find frustrating. That way, you can adopt strategies and business processes that make your business the one they prefer to deal with. Addressing your customers' issues gives you a great opportunity to create a competitive edge that's not just based on price. Holding a Client Advisory Board, where we sit down with your customers and listen to them in a structured way is an invaluable way to add value to your business.

7. The power of your team in building a customer service strategy
The people who work for you also play a vital role in how well your business meets customers' expectations. They deal directly with the issues raised by your customers every day. Often, that means they have hands-on insights that could benefit the business. A Team Advisory Board (much like a Client Advisory Board) generates strategies that improve the processes within your business. We have protocols for working with your team to develop a customer service plan that incorporates the feedback you receive from customers and team members alike - instantly setting your business on a path much more aligned with customer expectations.

8. A process-based audit to determines the improvements to be made
At LH Group we like to look at a business as a collection of people performing a wide range of activities or 'processes'. How well these activities are completed ALWAYS determines the outcomes or results your business achieves. We find most businesses have not truly systemized their processes. The result being that those outcomes are often random and many business people are left feeling they lack real control. Improving business performance is fundamentally then about improving the key processes within your business. LH Group uses a system to analyze the processes that comprise your business and its activities helps you identify which ones need to be redesigned for far better results.

9. Defining and documenting key business processes for more control
After analyzing what processes comprise your business, we can work with you to set up a documentation system. This will give you greater control over your results by defining exactly how each process is to be completed. Again, you get better control and outcomes. Another critical outcome to consider is that the value of your business increases as your business moves more and more towards being a turn-key system -- a system that produces expected results.

10. A management control plan to track your progress
Imagine having a control panel on your desk, much like the dashboard of your car, with gauges and signals that tell you instantly how your business is running. Compare that to the hectic, reactive nature of most businesses, large or small.

Your key performance indicators (KPIs) and your financial plan offer that level of control for your business just like your dashboard. Together they make up your management control plan, which helps you track the progress of all key areas of your business. The plan enables you to respond quickly to changes and new situations, and thus generate optimal profits for you. It's important that we, as your business development consultants, play an ongoing role here to track key performance indicators and your financial position with sophisticated software programs.

Financial Planning is crucial. Essentially it involves making the most of your financial position now to leverage your future financial position, both short term and long term.

At LH Group we look at the 'big picture' - where you are now, where you want to be, and the lifestyle you would like to become accustomed to!

The team here at LH Group are well versed in a variety of financial planning topics and we must meet continuing educational requirements. In addition to auditing and tax, we have specialist team members who have a solid broad-based financial background.

In fact, we saw financial planning as such a crucial service for our clients that we took specific further education with the Financial Planners Standards Council (FPSC). With a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) certified by FPSC you can rely on a professional who has met the educational and practical experience requirements of the FPSC and is governed by the strict professional ethics and code of conduct set out by the FPSC.

Given all those considerations you can rest assured we offer you the financial savvy and professional integrity you desire when developing creative planning strategies and planning for your financial future.

If you'd like to contact us about Financial Planning services- simply go to Contact Us and let us know.

Handing over your business to family members successfully can mean the difference between being financially sound for life or losing the value of many years of hard work and effort. More than 70 percent of family-owned businesses do not survive the transition from founder to second generation. Rather, they fall prey to either the estate tax or family discord. Developing and implementing a well-designed plan is essential to the long term success of the business you've grown and developed from the very beginning.

Succession planning also applies irrespective of whether you have family members looking to take over the business. One day you are going to need to exit the business, through retirement or sale. Succession planning covers the key steps to prepare the business for that moment.

In the event of selling the business to an outside purchase, LH Group can manage that process for and with you as that can be an arduous undertaking.

It's important to bear this concept in mind: ultimately, for your business to truly be a realizable asset for you, you need to constantly be working on it with a view to selling it sometime in the future. Whether you do sell it or not is irrelevant, keeping that frame of mind means that at least you will always be in a position TO sell it and realize it's true value, if you should ever want or need to.

That focus gives you a greater awareness of the need to systemize your business and make it less dependent on you.

People want to buy businesses that work, not businesses that are run by people that work and work and work … Succession planning then is an ongoing, ever improving process and is just as much about working ON your business as planning for the future. (Ask us about the concept of working 'ON' your business rather than 'IN' it and just what that could mean to you!)