Business Turnaround
Most businesses will face periods of uncertainty or decline at some point. This course explores the warning signs of business failure and the practical steps needed to stabilise operations, manage crises, and support long-term recovery.
£150 +VAT
Business Turnaround
£150 +VAT
365 days’ access
This course will enable you to
- Spot common warning signs that a business is in trouble
- Identify factors which cause businesses failure
- Act quickly during the early stages of crisis management
- Respond appropriately using popular crisis interventions
- Understand the important role of cash to business survival
- Establish the key objectives and questions necessary for building an effective turnaround plan
- Implement an effective strategic business turnaround plan
About the course
Even successful businesses can face periods of decline, financial pressure, or strategic uncertainty. Without the right response, warning signs such as falling cash flow, weak leadership, poor market positioning, or failure to adapt can quickly develop into a full business crisis. For accountants and business advisers, recognising these issues early and responding effectively can make the difference between recovery and failure.
This course explores the causes of business failure and the practical steps involved in turning a struggling business around. You’ll examine common warning signs, crisis intervention techniques, and the importance of stabilising cash flow during periods of uncertainty. The course also covers turnaround planning, including strategic restructuring, cost optimisation, leadership decisions, customer profitability analysis, and the role of innovation and digital transformation in rebuilding long-term performance.
You’ll come away with a clearer understanding of how businesses decline, how turnaround strategies are developed, and what actions are needed to support recovery. This course will give you practical tools to identify risks, manage crises, and contribute to effective business turnaround planning. Equip yourself to help businesses adapt, recover, and build a stronger foundation for future growth.
Contents
Why do businesses fail?
From saving a business to helping it grow
Cash is king
Consequences of failure
Change
Warning signs
External causes of failures
Internal causes of failure
Why businesses fail
Approaching the edge
The spiral of decline
Business life cycle
The BIG question
Susceptibility to failure: A scores
Quantitative factors: Z scores
What happens in a crisis?
Communication in a crisis
Positive action
Approaching the edge
Stabilising the situation
First steps
Reasons for failure
Cash management
Costing and pricing
Fixed costs review
More on variable costs
Stabilising the situation
Creating a turnaround plan
Objectives of the plan
The importance of information
Replace some senior management
The commitment of the workforce
Key success factors
Gap analysis
Customer profitability analysis
Financial planning – cash flows
Costing and pricing
Marketing
Creating a turnaround plan
Implementing the plan
Developing a strategic plan
Changing the business
Changing business operations
Creating self-managing autonomous teams
Investing in technology
Managing the supply chain
Re-energising the business life cycle
Encouraging change
Implementing a plan
Author
John Taylor
John is a Chartered Accountant who has spent many years advising small and medium-sized businesses across the North of England. John is the author of two industry standard textbooks: Millichamp – Auditing and Forensic Accounting. He has also written several auditing textbooks for AAT courses.
20 reviews for Business Turnaround
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Lydia Hakeney –
Great course. Only criticism I have is that there was too much information contained for one course and it could have been split into two courses.
Shaun Killeen –
i wish we could share these on linkedin!
Mireia Corredor Marcos –
Thanks for another interesting and helpful course.
Elena Genovese Potter –
It is one of the best courses here. Practical and structured. No wool.
Zammak Tughral –
Good course.
Alan Smith –
Excellent course – very relatable to my current employer
Aashna Kamal –
This is great for management as well as business owners who are in any stage of their business life cycle
Kate Donaldson –
Loved it great content & examples
Allan Young –
Covered everything I expected in good detail.
Lisa Barrett –
Very clear & informative module. The later vidoes on the module didn’t seem to work & I had to read the transcript instead which was a bit frustrating.
Marianke Thompson –
It was a comprehensive overview in a compact style – thank you.
David Willder –
very thorough worth another read
David Herrington –
Excellent – a really good template to measure our approach
John Mwanza –
The course met my expectation. It has been such a wonderful course as this has confirmed that strategies I am implementing in my organization are what has been highlighted in this course.
Tim Grimes –
It was good and convincing; specific thoughts in sections 4 and 5 were a bit too prescriptive The course would benefit from being more printer-friendly, so that one can keep the materials morer easily, to refer back to later
Gillian Sayer –
I work for a small business which is constantly facing challenges in current economic climate – energy crisis and inflation and this helped to think about what our business needs to monitor and manage to survive.
Angela Potter –
This gave a complete guide to the whole situation and thorough insight into the required steps
Torry McSkimming –
concise
Ying Ma –
relatable and practical.
Frank Myers –
Very good refresher of principles.