Business Owners wear many hats and need to learn to manage, well… everything!
One of the areas that many business owners have not had enough education or training in is managing the financial aspects of the business.
Here are 4 Steps to Better Business Management:
The Decision Step - Decide to be financially successful. Creating a business that is financially successful will not happen by accident or luck, it will take serious concentration and some inconvenience. Start by accurately tracking your business financial performance, whether you use a simple spreadsheet or an accounting software program, start tracking now!
The Get Serious Step - Quarterly detailed analysis of your expenses can make a big difference in your bottom line. Did you find an item that you don't really need that costs $60 a month. That is $720 you can save every year. Do that on ten items and you just created more than $7,000 extra profit each year. Get serious about cost cutting!
The Management Step - Don’t ignore your financial performance, embrace it! Often we consult with business owners who do not understand their financials so they tend to manage by perception instead of based on facts. Get to know your business revenue and expenses in detail like: what your operation costs to run each month; the condition of your accounts receivable aging if you offer payments to your customers; are you current on your accounts payable; what is your projections for the coming year, just to name a few.
The Goal Step - The reason most owners started their business was to provide the lifestyle they dream of. Then a few years into the business they realize they are not living their dream, in fact they are working more and earning less personally, so their lifestyle has deteriorated. Setting goals is a critical part of turning the business performance around. Clear and specific Written Goals that you read every day is the starting point to making changes. The list should have monthly goals, 1 year goals, and 5 years goals, all that tie together. And those goals should result in you re-creating your business so it does provide you the lifestyle you desire!
These steps are easy to read and understand, but they are not always easy to implement and maintain. Need help? We provide business support to help you learn and use Better Business Management steps, give us a call 619-798-6774.