In 2011, I was asked to deliver more seminars and speeches than ever before. I think this reflects the appetite of owner managed businesses to listen to experts in these difficult economic times, rather than just ploughing the same old furrow in splendid isolation.

So what did I talk about? Almost universally, my agenda included a section on headline business strategy / strategic marketing; a section on planning; a section on business to business marketing; a section on planning marketing communications and a section about the real role of sales.

I spent nearly 30 years in international and domestic corporate finance, but no-one wanted me to talk about finance. This is not because I can’t, but because we are all realising that business finance is merely a symptom not a cause. Opportunities to raise business finance are still plentiful if you know where to look and have the right connections, as we do at Corve Consultancy Limited. But often, additional borrowing is not required for growth, but is to cover inadequacies and inefficiencies within the core business, which are accentuated as trading conditions deteriorate.

In this recession, while the traditional lenders have been concentrating as much on their own balance sheets as their clients; good established companies have had to recognise that the financial sector either won’t help or is too slow to help and they have had to take action themselves.

Undertaking detailed strategic analysis or even using simple tools like Corve Consultancy’s ‘Benchmark Your Business’ model have allowed owner managers to identify how to save financial wastage, how to get more with less, how to optimise effectiveness and efficiency in the business strategy.

This has been the saving of many businesses over recent months as they have looked afresh at their real purpose and objectives and, with external help, reinforced the core of their business to withstand the recessionary pressures and start to take advantage of the opportunities that can arise when other, competitive businesses, are weaker.