Cash Flow is King! Plan Accordingly
In the last blog post we talked about creating an operating budget. This is a blueprint of your operations to help you chart the growth
In the last blog post we talked about creating an operating budget. This is a blueprint of your operations to help you chart the growth
Start by reviewing the numbers that show your actuals (from your P&L report), your forecast (based on where you think you can make adjustments), and the difference or variance for each line item. Now you have a working budget!
It might make it easier (and more palatable) to think of budgeting as profit planning. If you have a profit plan in place, then you can truly track your income and expenses in a fashion that gives you a clear plan as to how to increase your revenues and where to cut your overhead.
And like any disease, a toxic employee can subtly spread counterproductive attitudes and actions to other employees. Employees who were productive but lacked the strength to overcome the negative forces become carriers of the disease, and so the toxicity spreads. Over time, the entire company can be infected.
What is it that prevents small businesses from successfully implementing useful back office systems? Usually it is the business owner. Small business owners often lack the knowledge, the time, and the help they need to create useful systems and make them work to their advantage. And a lot of business owners don’t think they need systems. That’s where they are mistaken.
The chain of command provides a clear line of responsibility from the executive suite on down. As part of the structure, you need to give employees a procedure to move up the chain if their concerns are not resolved.
Everyone is held accountable to the chain of command, starting with those at the top. If you own the company, you need to define your role in the chain of command and follow the protocols that you set.
Every aspect of your operation needs to be structured and documented so the results are predictable and the knowledge needed to execute is captured, clear, and transferrable. Systems should be created to provide repeatable results; rinse and repeat is the key.
To outsource or not to outsource…that is the question. If you find running payroll, tracking AP and AR, and being responsible for the multitude of routine accounting functions is a drain on your resources rather than being an asset to your business, you might consider hiring an experienced, reputable accounting service
Part of the job of senior managers is to keep the corporate vision alive. When you have toxic employees undermining operations, it’s challenging to keep your eye on long-term objectives, but the best defense against cranky workers is maintaining a positive attitude and a clear vision, and sharing that vision.
For moderately sized companies in the $2 million to $20 million range, senior management often turn to their CPA for advice about business finances because they don’t have a CFO or financial advisor on staff. What they will get from a CPA is a financial opinion informed by the CPA’s perspective on taxes and tax law, not necessarily the financial opinion that may be best for the situation.
Often, as owners we find that we wear too many hats: constantly going from being the owner to sales, to HR and accounting, to web design, etc. The reason for creating the Marin Business Forum is to learn more about how to run our businesses better – from guest speakers and from each other.