Ethica Diamonds attend Growth Planning Day
Emily and Elaine attended a recent InFocus Growth Planning One-Dayer to take some much needed time working ON the business, instead of IN the business.
Recently rebranded, Ethica Diamonds owner Elaine and daughter, Emily, attended the InFocus Growth Planning Day for support in the development of their business growth plan.
Ethica Diamonds sell man-made ethical diamonds; Elaine Raffell founded the company and runs it with her daughter, Emily.
After the two years she spent researching diamond industry practices and supply chains, Elaine’s industry-awareness grew, as did her passion to source ethical and environmentally friendly diamonds. In 2011 she launched KinetIQue Diamonds and formed a retail relationship with the manufacturers of the IQ Diamond: a unique and innovative engineered diamond that matched Elaine and Emily’s business ethos. KinetIQue began to grow and, in 2019, was rebranded to become Ethica Diamonds.
Elaine and Emily took part in last month’s InFocus Growth Planning Day, both to take a “step back from the business” and, away from the office, to spend some time reflecting on its strengths and weaknesses. Emily said:
We recognise that we were working in the business a lot, but we need to work ON the business and develop strategies for growth.
The Growth Planning Day was their chance to review the business’s finances and work out how to adopt their growth plan. Elaine said:
We needed to look at the financials because we’ve been so busy managing the day to day that we’re not really aware of what we need to do to grow. We identified that we would need extra financial understanding, reflecting on the last three years we’ve recognised that actually, we’re doing OK, but that we could do more. It’s made us realise that we need to do more stepping away, delegating and making better use of time rather than just carrying on as we are.
Growth Planning Days see businesses work – one-to-one and in detail – with a Business Development Manager, collaborating to come up with a growth action plan. Reflecting on this, Elaine said:
“We’ve really enjoyed the feedback from people in the room; to see other people’s perspective that we might not have seen ourselves. It highlights where we are weak. If we’re honest we all have weak points in some areas. The positivity from your business development managers is encouraging and makes you feel really supported – they make you feel like you’re not just doing it on your own.”
As part of the InFocus programme, Growth Planning days are CLOSE-UP one-day sessions that help you take a detailed, dispassionate, forensic look at what your business does, where it’s up to, and where it’s going. These are intensive, one-to-one facilitated days; you’ll focus – relentlessly and systematically – on every element of your business. To find out more and to get involved, contact the InFocus team on 0845 600 3660 or fill out our form to register your interest.