Do you have enough money in your business for it to survive should you be unable to work? You never know when life is going to trip you up or cause a temporary derailment to your business. I have two clients who have had to take time off work because of parents being ill or needing additional support. And as we get older, that’s a problem more and more of us face. Then I was really shocked and saddened to read a post in a group I’m in on Facebook about a well-known marketing expert who has been diagnosed with […]
Read more →Financial Planning
I was with a client recently and they shared how much money they wanted to be able to take out of the business in the long term. So what we needed to do was some maths to work out how to get there. And here is what we did. I’m going to make up the figures to preserve anonymity. They ultimately wanted to be able to take £5000 a month from the business. Stage 1 – identify current revenue and profit margins 1. Identify current annual revenue (sales or turnover) 2. Identify the net profit (the amount left over after […]
Read more →‘Only 3% of adults have written goals, and everyone else works for them.’ Brian Tracy Many businesses seem reluctant to plan for their business. Why is that? A client once admitted he was scared to have a sales forecast for next year. When I asked him about it, he said it was scary committing to figures that he was then worried about not hitting. Which was odd, given that we’d been working off a sales forecast that I’d created for him for the previous six months. And that he’d almost hit target (he only missed it by a matter of […]
Read more →Service Performance Insight* produced the white paper – ‘Introducing the 2016 Best-of-the-Best Professional Services Organizations’ in April 2016 In it they say there are five key factors that determine the success of the best organisations: – Leadership – Client relationships – Human Capital Alignment (posh word for HR) – Service execution – Finance and operations So, what was it about the top rated companies that made them the best? The best companies showed the following attributes for each factor: 1. Leadership – They have a clear and compelling vision which was communicated. They demonstrate transparency and clear communication with all […]
Read more →As a small business, there is always a risk our invoices won’t be paid on time. We all curse the big corporates who insist on 90 day terms or who screw our prices to the floor or stop payment because a ‘t’ wasn’t crossed. But the smaller companies can be just as bad for different reasons. Excuses I have heard for not paying: ‘I didn’t think it was important – it wasn’t that much’ ‘My son was in hospital/other variations on illness’ ‘I can’t afford to pay you until my customers pay me’ ‘I’m changing banks at the moment’ ‘The […]
Read more →Do you have a shareholder agreement? Hands up if there is more than one director in your business and that you all of you have shares. And hands up again, if you have a shareholder agreement. If you put your hand up to both, well done. You don’t need to read this blog and can treat yourself to a nice cuppa and put your feet up for the few minutes you’ve saved yourself the time. If you put your hand up to the first, but not the second, you need to put the kettle on, make a cuppa and brace […]
Read more →We all know that cash is king and making sure that more if it is coming in than is going out is vital. Having a cash flow forecast is important, particularly if you have a seasonal sales cycle when you may have to ramp up production, incurring costs before you are able to sell the goods. The forecast will allow you to track where you are with your money each month and show any months where the costs may outstrip the incoming revenue allowing you to plan for the shortfall, rather than it being nasty surprise. Sound daunting? Managing your […]
Read more →We all know that cash is king and improving your cash flow to make sure that more if it is coming in than is going out is vital. Having a cash flow forecast is important, particularly if you have a seasonal sales cycle when you may have to ramp up production, incurring costs before you are able to sell the goods. The forecast will allow you to track where you are with your money each month and show any months where the costs may outstrip the incoming revenue allowing you to plan for the shortfall, rather than it being nasty surprise. […]
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