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.
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.
lot of our initial conversations with IT client prospects center on disaster recovery – what is the worst case scenario that could bring your network down? Is it a server crash? Internet failure? Multiple workstations failing at the same time?
The inability to implement a good workflow to track business-critical processes, like accounting, is one the biggest shortcoming we encounter with our clients.