Gordon Bromley, speaking at the Streetwise Subbie annual conference, promised lightbulb moments. But he said anyone who had not acted on the revelations within four weeks never would.

Gordon Bromley, the keynote speaker at this year’s third annual Streetwise Subbie conference, held once again at the Belfry Hotel in Nottingham, thought everyone would gain something from what he related of his experiences. He asked his audience of specialist subcontractors to write down what they planned to do as a result of what he said, in the next 24 hours, seven days and four weeks. He said if they had nothing after four weeks they never would.

Gordon Bromley runs the Academy for Chief Executives, coaching the CEOs and MDs of mainly small and medium-sized businesses, calling on more than 30 years of experience of running large and small businesses. Notably he took Tropicana Fruit Juice from a UK start up to £150million sales in the 13 years to 2004.

To do that, he said, you had to ignore Warren Buffet’s two rules: 1) Never lose money; 2) Never forget rule 1.

Warren Buffet has become one of the world’s richest people by buying and selling stocks and shares. He is not the first person who has become rich on the world’s stock markets to have advocated avoiding high risk. But, said Gordon, in business it was sometimes necessary to focus on products, services and processes rather than the balance sheet.

His point was that if you get the business right the balance sheet will take care of itself.

A vital ingredient in getting the business right is to have the right people in it. “My top priority with Tropicana was to make it a fantastic place to work. The reason was that happy people sell more boxes. Happy people do everything better.”

But even happy people need direction and to be given targets. Those targets should always be based on achieving what he called MWBs – must win battles. That will focus a company’s direction as long as achieving the targets makes a difference by triggering rewards. “Targets will drive bonuses.”

Identifying changes needed, and setting targets to achieve them requires a business plan. Not pages of profit and loss accounts stretching into an ever more optimistic future, but a plan that will make changes to the way the business works now and in the months (rather than years) ahead.

Gordon said he had seen business plans that were huge books, usually created to attract investment from a third party. One he had seen was 136 pages long. They sit on shelves gathering dust.

But a business plan that would make a difference to the running of a company should be no more than two pages long. It should identify those MWBs and strategies for winning them, naming the people who would be involved and timescales for actions.

He said the plan should have no more than four objectives at any one time. These had to include commitments from the Directors and had to be circulated to everyone in the business, with everyone accountable for their contributions. “It’s the boss who typically doesn’t like to be held responsible, not the staff,” said Gordon. The plan should include outcomes (if we do this, this will happen). Some figures might be required to identify targets, but not many.

Plans should be short to medium term – no more than three years. “If you’re still doing all that stuff you did three years ago you’re a dinosaur.”

When asked what was the most important measure of business success, people usually said profit and turnover, but Gordon said you had to choose, because increasing turnover usually involved investment, which could reduce profit.

He also said there could be other important measures – such as how many new customers had been created, which might be vital, and how many key members of staff had been retained.

He wondered how many business plans included a section on staff development. There is a cost associated with losing people – customers they take with them, communication breakdown with customers that remain, in-house team disruption, recruiting and training new people.

Business plans, said Gordon, should not contain woolly wishes or statements, not even terms such as ‘I will try to...’. “They should only be about what you’re going to change plus what your going to do with your people – which I insist on.”

He emphasised that making a business plan is not something that can be achieved in a couple of minutes. It takes time. It should involve staff and include their personal objectives. And it should be regularly reviewed with staff, perhaps monthly, to make sure it is on track. It can only work if everyone is behind it.

“Don’t make the mistake of thinking people don’t want to see it. They do. They don’t want to feel they’re not important enough to have been included… If you get everyone involved you will get their commitment.”

He said: “The reason great businesses succeed is that they know what they’re going to do and they achieve it.”

The title of the Streetwise Subbie annual conference this year was ‘Win Work – Get Paid – Make Money’. There were nine presentations plus Gordon Bromley’s offering a range of advice on how to win and keep business and reduce risk exposure while staying on the right side of the law.

Some of the latest dirty tricks used by main contractors to avoid paying their subbies the full amount owed to them were identified by Barry Ashmore, who heads Streetwise Subbie.

Barry, who used to be a specialist contractor himself, established Streetwise Subbie (www.streetwisesubbie.com) 41/2 years ago to provide specialist contractors with resources and expertise to assist the wealth and financial security of their businesses, win work and get a better deal from main contractors, not least in getting paid, with legal advisors to consult if necessary.

For a relatively modest monthly fee the organisation provides help and back-up for companies that have limited resources in terms of time and money, keeping them up-to-date with changes in the law and tax system and helping with marketing.

Some of the organisation’s partners were at the conference, which Barry believes is the largest cross-discipline event of its kind for specialist contractors, to explain the services they offer and up date the audience on latest developments.

One of them (Richard Brackenbury, a solicitor) explained that he was establishing with Streetwise Subbie a new service called Specialist Contractor Law, which would offer Streetwise Subbie members preferential and fixed rates for services to help them with contracts and in conflicts. During his presentation he pointed out how much cheaper it was to have a solicitor look over a contract before it was signed that to argue about it at the end of a project when payment was not forthcoming.

He also said it could be amazing how quickly an outstanding sum was paid when a winding up order was issued.

Mike Dickinson, part of the management buy-out team that took over insurance brokers Russell Scanlan in 2008 and is the Sales & Marketing Director of the firm, spoke about the benefits of buying insurance through a broker.

Tony Rand, ‘the Google guy’ who became a dot-com millionaire in 2008 when he sold a website he had created with his brother, now runs Business Marketing Online, which helps smaller companies that do not have the resources to manage their own online presence with their websites and social media marketing. Tony enables SMEs to punch well above their weight and compete on more equal terms with much larger competitors in the digital environment that is becoming an ever more important source of work.

Mike Grant, who runs his own consultancy now after having been a quantity surveyor for many years, works with Streetwise Subbie to help members with contractual and commercial issues. He said many specialist subcontractor teams had a ‘get the job done’ attitude that needed to be reined in. If the job changes during the contract it needs to be determined there and then how that is going to be paid for in spite of the main contractor’s protestations to get the job finished and discuss it afterwards. Discussing it afterwards almost inevitably results in the subbie paying for it.

Rachael Dines, a Chartered Marketer and PR professional, and Kirsten Howells, Managing Director of PR company Priest & Co, explained how specialist contractors could use press and public relations to reach their target audiences.

And from the sharp end, David Gallavan, the Commercial Director of Prater Ltd, the £90million-a-year nationally operating envelope contractor, some tips on getting a little bit more from a contract – such as never charging £15 for something that can be priced at £55 because nobody ever quibbles over the price of small value items.

He also advised: “Be deadly with valuations and the timing of them.” If they are late, add interest. “You’re not going to get it but it gives you negotiating room for the final payment.”

Applications during a project should show an anticipated final account. If the contract is for £2.2million and your estimate of the final account is £2.5million, the QS will cut it back to £2.4million, leaving you ahead.

And if you say variations amount to £80,000 and you are offered £20,000, take it and agree to go half-and-half on the remaining £60,000, leaving you £10,000 better off than if you agree to split the whole sum.