Business 101: Doing Business By the Numbers – How to Get the Financial Fever
Hate numbers? You aren’t alone – many entrepreneurs do. As soon as that word appears, entrepreneurs glaze over. The mere suggestion of spending time working through numbers sends them into shutdown.
Did you know that numbers, if used correctly, could be a key driver in your business, helping you laser-focus your efforts on the most profitable products and projects? Without your numbers, you could be wasting your time and money!
Think of your numbers as the best friend you’ve never had in business. They work diligently away in the background, adding, subtracting, analyzing, producing results all while you toil away in the business. What more could you ask for from a best friend?
Like all best friends, this one thrives on love and attention. The more your give it, the more it gives you back. If you don’t pay attention to it, it will still add and subtract but won’t analyze. After all what would be the point when you’re not paying attention?
Your business best friend doesn’t ask for much really, just a system for it to do all its adding and subtracting, and allow it to analyze to its hearts content. Give your best friend a system and use the systems and it will reward you with such valuable information.
Why You Need to Get the Financial Fever
What rewards can you expect? What are some of the questions can you get answered?
- Am I making a profit or loss?
- Who owes me money?
- Who do I owe money?
- Do I have enough cash coming in to cover all my expenses?
- What sales categories are performing best?
- Where am I overspending? (Disguised as investing by our emotions!)
- What is the true profitability of a sales category?
What do these questions help you do?
- Make decisions utilizing not just your gut but actual business logic from what your numbers are telling you.
- Advise you on what has been working in your business and what hasn’t worked at all. Take heed of what the numbers are telling you – numbers aren’t emotional they will show you the clear facts.
- Help support your gut decisions. When the numbers stack up, they can support those decisions that are made entirely on instinct. When they don’t, it gives you the heads up that perhaps further consideration is required.
- See where you should be focusing your efforts. What are the best performing categories, lets do more of that!
All a best friend wants is love and attention and if you give both, the benefits will be amazing. You’ll learn more about your business than you thought you knew. Give your best friend some love and they will lay on the flowers and chocolates or even better help you afford some for yourself!
Would you like the ability to make snap business decisions, confident in the knowledge that YOU know exactly what is going on and what levers to pull to produce the results you want? Check out the Business Momentum Mentor.
Smart Start-up Tips: Outsourcing Catch 22 – Time IS Money, But Can You Realistically Afford to Outsource?
Which comes first? The outsourcing or the budget to be able to hire someone? It’s a Catch 22 that all entrepreneurs face sooner or later. You are trying to grow your business to generate the cash flow to hire additional support, but you can’t push forward until you hire someone because you are so busy in your business to drive the growth.
So what do you do?
It’s time to create leverage in your business by outsourcing the tasks that are slowing down your growth. But remember, outsourcing isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition – you are better to start slowly and be smart about what you outsource than to never start at all because you are waiting for the budget to magically appear.
Simple Steps to Save You Time, Money and Heartache when Outsourcing Tasks
#1: Create a list of tasks to be outsourced.
#2: Group these tasks into categories (think administration, bookkeeping, sales, marketing, etc.).
#3: Take each task on your list and ensure you have a process related to each task so you can handover a system not just a task.
#4: Determine the review checkpoints within the system of each task.
#5: Write down the qualities you look for in a collaborative relationship
#6: Check your cash flow to determine if you can really afford to outsource these tasks.
#7: Check in with yourself – Track your time for a week. This simple exercise will not only help you to become aware of how long these tasks are taking you, but also to be aware of how productive you really are.
#8: Based on your time tracking of tasks, set a budget for the outsourcing. Often by outsourcing to specialists the time required improves.
#9: If your outsourcing will be virtual, ensure you have appropriate communication systems in place to develop a collaborative partnership.
#10: Put the word out, and find that outsourced resource.
One Final Word of Warning BEFORE You Outsource
Be realistic. Track your time to ensure your own productivity is up to scratch before you start outsourcing. Because if you are outsourcing on the premise of freeing up more time to work on revenue generating tasks and you are not productive yourself, don’t expect some miracle to occur just because you have more time.
Often the opposite is the case. Being busy and being productive are two very different things. If you currently “super busy” flitting from one task to another instead of being focused productive, this behavior will not change just because you “free up” your time by outsourcing.
Only when you are productive yourself will freeing up your time by outsourcing tasks allow you to create leverage from outsourcing. The only ‘catch’ with this Catch 22 is making certain you are ready to benefit from the extra time otherwise outsourcing is just an extra expense.
Want to know more about how to create effective systems to stay focused and be highly productive? Check out Bizfficiency – the program that will help you take back control over your life, reduce feelings of overwhelm and finally set your business on a growth path.
Smart Start-up Tips: Streamline Your Work Week – 10 Ways to Find Extra Time and Boost Productivity
Are you struggling to find time to work on your business or just keep up with the business of business? Do you have projects you would like to get started but never seem to have the time?
You try and fit them in here and there but without much success. The secret lies in streamlining your workweek by allocating a different focus for each workday, such as client days, development days and admin days.
Client days speak for themselves, while development days are spent on marketing, following up with prospects and working on new products and services. Admin days are for catching up on bookkeeping, filing and maintaining systems. If you batch all of these tasks together you will have a super productive week.
Where to start streamlining your work week?
#1: Grab a year long calendar.
#2: Map out all holidays for the year (including the school holidays for your children). This shows you realistically how much time you have available to work on and in your business.
#3: Schedule in conferences and other events.
#4: Look at your work week and divide the days into specific tasks. For example, client days Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Business Development day on Wednesday and Admin day on Friday.
#5: Next look at how many development and admin days this gives you for the year.
#6: Now you can determine realistically how those projects on your project list will get done. Do you have enough time for all of them? Probably not. Select the top three projects that will drive your business forward and generate revenue.
#7: Map these projects over the year, setting realistic completion dates.
#8: Spend each designated day working on that business focus and see your project finally come to fruition.
#9: You can also streamline your admin day and outsource as much as you can. Granted if you run a business you still will have some admin to complete.
#10: Check out your client day hours on your calendar. Is your business growing at a rate that you will run out of hours next year? This map can show you if you require additional resources.
The hardest part of streamlining your week is not getting your clients on board but disciplining yourself that this is your new schedule and you need to stick to it. Sure sometimes you may need to forgo a development day to keep a client happy, but if it’s all mapped out you can see the impact this will have on your projects and adjust accordingly. SO grab your map and get started!
As a solo entrepreneur, do you struggle to get things done in your day? Check out her new 5 part teleseminar course called Bizfficiency (starts Tuesday 16th of November). Alycia will have you feeling more motivated and in control than ever before.
Business 101: Cash in on Cashflow – 7 Must-do Cash Management Tips for Every Mom Entrepreneur
Cashflow, it can make or break your business. So what can you do to make sure it doesn’t break you? It comes down to simple math: incoming must be greater than outgoing or you run the risk of falling short on your monthly expenses. Too often mom entrepreneurs become focused on the fun aspects of their business and not the business of running their business like a business, meaning managing the money side of the business.
How to keep the incoming cashflow coming IN!
#1: Clear payment terms – If you don’t tell people when your invoices are due, they’ll pay whenever they feel like it. Clearly state in your invoices either the due date or payment terms that can be calculated from the date of invoice.
#2: Regular invoicing – Don’t wait until the end of the month to complete your invoicing. Delayed invoicing can cause substantial “empty pockets” in your cashflow during a month.
#3: Collect deposits and progress payments – Ask for an upfront deposit and/or progress payments for projects that will be completed over a considerable timeframe as you will likely be incurring expenses for these projects before the completion date. Include deposit and progress payment stipulations in your project proposal.
#4: Send overdue account statements – Start sending statements as soon clients are outside the payment terms and continue until full payment is received. If possible, use a separate accounting email address or ask your bookkeeper to handle accounts receivables so you can avoid jeopardizing your business relationship.
How to manage the cashflow going OUT!
#5: Avoid unnecessary expenses – Only purchase what is going to help you move forward in your business right now. Then ask yourself: do I really have the time to devote to both learning and implementing it. If the answer is no, don’t purchase it – it’s just a waste of money.
#6: Stop using a tax deduction as an excuse for spending – Never spend just to get a deduction if your cashflow is tight and put a complete STOP on little luxuries – both habits will bankrupt your business. That nice-to-have new car will have to wait until the business can support the finance payments.
#7: Stop pulling money out of the business for personal use – Never treat your business as a personal account and take out money for your own personal use. Too often business owners take too much out, effectively bankrupting their business by not leaving enough in the business bank account to pay the monthly bills. If you don’t understand the numbers well enough to know how much to take out and how much to leave in, get expert advice from an accountant.
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