Reach for the Sky: RTA Business on the Art of Innovation

The amazing news that Google is attempting to build an honest to goodness self-driving car, only highlights the need for creativity and ambition in business, and this week, the RTA Business blog will explore just why you need to reach for the sky if you hope to make a substantial profit on the sale of your business.

It’s not as easy as showing a potential buyer your profit margins and waiting for them to sign on the dotted line. Buyers want to know that they can use your business to build on profit margins in the long term. If you’ve developed a lucrative, innovative product that fills a gap in the market, they’ll be biting your hand off to gain access to a veritable gold mine. This is why you need to reach for the sky.

Google: A Case Study in Ambition

Google is the perfect case study to highlight the benefits of ambition. They’ve practically constructed their entre brand through sheer ambition. Time and time again, Google have attempted the improbable, or at last the inadvisable (such as introducing Gmail in a saturated market) and they have seen success that has spurred them on to new heights.

They’ve become so popular because they find gaps in the market where they can make the most money - they find the practical opening then ambitiously shoot for the stars to fill it. The numbers back it up. Since it was first created in 1998, Google, according to Forbes, has become worth a staggering $382.47 billion.

RTA Business Asks: Will the Self Driving Car Work?

So is the self-driving car a step too far. It’s certainly an ambitious project; a car that will have a start/stop button, but no controls, steering wheel, pedals etc. If it’s possible, and that’s a big if, we at RTA Business believe that it could be Google’s next highly successful project.

Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin explained why to the BBC, stating that it aims to "improve people's lives by transforming mobility". The amount of people this could benefit is sky high – disabled people, older people, people who can’t drive, blind people etc. There’s so much potential.

This is why you need to reach for the sky if you ever hope to sell your business. Find that gap in the market and truly fill it, and you have a gold mine on your hands, a gold mine buyers will flock to acquire for a tidy sum!

OECD Revises UK Growth Forecast

The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) has revised its forecast for UK economic growth this year, upping the figure to account for a strengthening financial situation. At RTA Business, we recognise that this puts you in a stronger position when you decide it’s time to sell your business.

Various reports have suggested that business leader confidence is stronger than ever this year, due to national economic recovery and expectations that growth will return to pre-recession levels by this summer. This latest report is set to further persuade business leaders that now is the time to buy your business.

The OECD Forecast

This week the OECD released its latest forecast for UK growth, in what was an upward revision of previous estimates. In November, the Paris-based organisation claimed that in 2014 the UK economy would grow by 2.4%. Now they’re suggesting that the country’s economy will expand by 3.2%. This contrasts with an OECD average national estimate of 2.2%.

There are several factors that led to this revision of OECD growth estimates and each individually and collectively suggests an economy in full-fledged recovery. This month the services sector, which has dominated in recent quarters, rose for the 16^th straight month, sterling rose to a five and a half year peak against the dollar, and economic growth rates have continued to impress.

It’s important to note here that UK growth has outstripped forecasts for not only the US and China but every country in the G7.  Furthermore, global growth is expected to measure 3.4%.

RTA Business Comments

These figures suggest one thing - that it could be the right time to sell your business, and here’s why. First, the fact that the UK economy is set to expand this year, means that buyers should have more capital and when they have more capital coming in, they tend to want to spend that to create more – what  better way to do so than to buy your business?

Secondly, these figures should boost buyer confidence in the strength of the UK economy, meaning they’ll be surer that they’ll be able to profit from your business after they’ve bought it. Finally, these figures suggest that UK companies are in a stronger position than their foreign rivals, which further boosts business leader confidence.

At RTA Business we realise that these numbers indicate one thing- you are in a particularly strong position to sell right now.

RTA Business’ Top Five Tips For Effective Market Research

Market research is the lynchpin any successful business is based on, but it’s hard to know where to start when crafting an effective market research strategy. That’s why this week, RTABusiness Consultants thought we’d list for you these top five tips for effective market research.

You need to know your customer if you ever hope to sell your business. Not only is it the best way to actually make money (and show a buyer that your business will bump up their bottom line), but it also shows your buyer who they can target once they buy your business.

A buyer will want to know who your target consumer is, there’s no two ways about it. If you can’t show them that, they will walk away. So what do you need to know to cobble together an effective market research strategy?

A Few Tips from RTA Business

1) Be Broad: Use every avenue available to you – the more information you get, the clearer the picture of your target consumer will be. Use social media sites liberally to gather market data, as they have the capability to reach millions of people with minimal cost.

2) Open Ended Questions: Whenever you question potential consumers, do so by using open ended questions. This allows them to provide the accurate information you need to correctly identify your target market. Close ended questions often lead to gaps in information.

3) Embrace Convenience: Consumers tend to avoid answering market research surveys simply because they see it as a waste of their time, so make it convenient for them. An increasingly popular tactic is to approach consumers by smartphone, as in the modern world, smartphones are practically glued to people’s hands.

4) Political Correctness. Market research efforts have a nasty habit of offending people if questions are framed with language deemed unacceptable. This damages your overall brand. Always be conscientious of how consumers may react to market research methods.

5) Persistence Pays: Again, you’re probably not going to entice a consumer to contribute to your market research efforts on the first try, but you might on the second. Be persistent and they’ll contribute just to get rid of you!

UK Productivity Is Picking Up but Has Long Way to Go

It’s been a grim few years for the UK productivity rate as the recession has hit every part of UK business, right down to the average worker’s hourly output. Good news then this week for the business community, as UK productivity rates are beginning to show signs of life again. What could this mean for you if you’re looking to sell your business soon?

Productivity refers to, literally, how productive your workers are. Productivity directly affects profit margins, which in turn affects your ability to sell your business. The recession hit productivity because it hit the resources workers had to carry out their jobs with. That’s why the recession wasn’t a great time for the business acquisition industry.

The economic recovery has been such a relief for everybody. A stronger economy means that more resources are available for workers to use to help expands the profitability of your business. However it also led to a rapid rise in the employment rate and one consequence was a sharp decline in productivity numbers.

So what are we dealing with here? This week productivity started to grow again, as the rate of output per hour grew by 0.3%. This figure highlights the fact that Britain has faced a productivity problem for years; rising employment in the wake of the financial recovery has led to a rapid decrease in productivity. However we could be clawing our way out of it.

The issue is that productivity is still 3% below 2008 levels and 21 percentage points below the average recorded for other G7 countries. The widest gap since 1992, the slight recovery of output numbers disappointed many in the finance industry and highlighted just how much work we have left to do.

The Financial Times reported Philip Rush, an economist at Nomura, commenting on what the figures mean. Rush said that “It was a small pick-up in productivity, one that disappointed even my pessimistic expectations.” In fact the economy expanded slightly faster than the rate of UK productivity and this is a problem we need to address if we wish continue to recover from the ravages of the recession.

So RTA Business Consultants asks, what does this mean for you if you are looking to sell your business? Productivity is essential to any business model, and you can’t grow your business without it. These figures show that, yes, productivity is picking up, but there’s a long way to go. If you are thinking about selling your business right now, productivity is something you need to be thinking about. 

How Can You Grow Your Profit Margins?

When a buyer is looking to but your business the first thing they look at is your profit margins. So how can you attract a buyer by growing your business’ profit margins?

It’s business acquisition 101. If you want someone to buy your business, you have to show them how it can benefit them. This is why they look at the profit margins; they want to see how much money they’ll be able to make from the business they are buying and the best way to do so is to see how much it is already making.

Therefore before you even think about putting your business up for sale you need to make sure that your profit margins are suitably wide. If you need a little help getting there then follow these RTA Business tips on increasing your profit margins.

The first is to diversify the leads you have on your roster. Leads are the people who have been or who have contacted the business over the course of a year. You can’t conduct a business without contacts and the more contacts you have, the greater chance there will be to seize on an opportunity to expand your profit margins. Its why people network!

You also need to conduct some analysis. You need to identify where you are making and where you are losing money. What’s your strongest asset and what’s your weakest? Where do you have room to expand? Focus your efforts on your strongest areas to increase profitability.

Also take into account the current costs of your business. Where can you streamline and make your operations more efficient. It’s important to work with balance here. Only cut costs where it is appropriate, don’t cut corners.

Also examine you and your employees’ time management. There’s a saying that ‘time is money’ and it really is the case. Where are you spending your time in concerns to business operations? Think about how much time you need to allot to each area and where excess time may be more efficiently spent.


At RTA Business we’ve seen how profit margins affect the likelihood of a buyer’s intentions to carry through a business sale. Profit margins are essential because they show how said buyer can use your business to expand their own.

Eurozone Economic Momentum Gathers Pace

Reports have surfaced this month that suggest that the momentum of economic growth in the Eurozone is gathering pace. What does this mean for the UK economy and business acquisition as 2014 unfolds.

Eurostat, The EU’s office dedicated to statistics released figures last week that suggest that in particular Eurozone GDP growth is speeding up, aiding in economic recovery. These figures specifically show that the Eurozone economy experienced a growth rate of 0.3% in the final quarter of 2013.

This growth rate saw a jump from the 0.1% recorded in the previous quarter, and together they signify the longest period of economic growth since the onset of the recession, which lasted 18 months. The recession was in fact the longest period of economic contraction in the EU single currency era.

What added to this news that December alone stood at a higher rate of growth than the entire quarter. The Eurozone measured together, including the UK which has recorded stronger rates of GDP growth than most EU states, a growth rate of 0.4% in GDP for December.

However there’s a mixed message as Eurostat recorded a contraction of 0.4% for the Eurozone for the entire year. However Europe as a whole, including non-Eurozone countries recorded a total GDP growth rate of 0.1% for 2013.

Chris Williamson, chief economist of Markit was reported by the BBC to have given his thoughts on what these figures mean. He said that they indicate that “the Eurozone's recovery has moved up a gear." The Eurozone has been thought to be in recovery for the last year.

He then elaborated on what this means, saying that "not only has the pace of growth picked up to the fastest since the second quarter of 2011, but the recovery is also becoming more broad-based, encompassing core and so-called 'periphery' countries alike."

What this means is that not only is the economic recovery getting stronger, everybody is recovering. It’s not just affecting traditionally strong economies such as the UK, France and Germany. Those such as Ireland, Italy and Greece that suffered severely from the recession are recovering as well.

This all underscores the fact that the British economy is finally in sustained recovery. Not only is GDP stronger, indicating a greater flow of money that can strengthen the nation’s economic power, but the UK’s trading partners are recovering as well, providing a greater scope for business opportunity.

At RTA Business we understand the importance that the strength of the UK and EU economies has for buying businesses. The stronger the economy, the more likelihood there is of expansion, meaning the more likely you are to be able to sell your business to someone looking to expand for a profit.