The Power of The Numbers

Do you know the Key Financial Drives for your business? If so, do you review them on a monthly basis and compare to best practice? If not, wouldn’t it be useful to have some objective way of checking the health and performance of your business and know where to tweak it for better results?

What you may need is better FINANCIAL control. Financial control is different to the business bookkeeping system. Bookkeeping is about recording the figures while financial control is the management of the money and making the numbers work better for you and your business. However in order to have an effective financial control system you need to have accurate bookkeeping. Computerised systems will help you keep your books in order.

A good financial management system facilitates you in accomplishing your daily financial objectives and future goals and targets. This means that the management system helps you become a better manager by enabling you to:

• Manage in a more proactive manner
• Borrow money more easily due to the possibility of being able to plan ahead for financing needs and set budget which can assist in the loan approval process.
• Provide financial planning information for investors.
• Make your business more profitable and efficient.
• Assist in major decision making processes affecting finances
• Avoid investing too much money in fixed assets.
• Set sales goals
• Improve gross profit margin by pricing your products and/or services more effectively or by reducing supplier prices, direct labour, etc.
• Help with tax planning.
• Plan ahead for employee benefits.
• Perform sensitivity analysis with the different financial variables involved.

In developing a financial management system it is a necessity to have your financial statements. These statements should be printed on a monthly basis and include your income statement, your balance sheet and your cash flow statement. These will help you to be far more proactive and manage your finances better.

For help in identifying your Key Financial Drivers email me at andyburrows@iconbusinesssolutions.com or call 09 912 1901, to book a FREE Net Variable Cash Flow analysis and strategy review report. Check out my website for more offers of assistance and what co-funding is available from NZTE. www.iconbusinesssolutions.co.nz

You can find out more at our website here: Growth for business

What's This Thing Called "Culture"?

A culture statement is used as a guide for a business entity to foster a congruent relationship with the people it works with. The culture within an organisation will attract a certain style of person to it (good or bad, productive or non-productive) and you can control this attraction by having a stated or desired culture and management working to maintain that culture within the organisation.

Culture / Values are beliefs which owners, management and employees hold in common and endeavour to put into practice. The culture guides management and employees in performing their work. Specifically, you should ask, "What are the basic beliefs that we share as a business?"

Just imagine a business employing a manager to operate the business. How dramatically would the business change under the following two different management styles!

General Manager #1

Manager #1 has an autocratic style and has always believed that employees steal from them, don’t work toward the best interest of the business and are only there for their self-interest. This manager does not believe that any of the staff are responsible enough to take on any task without full supervision. Manager #1 believes that their suppliers are trying to overcharge and under deliver and are always late with delivery. They also believe that their customers are out to take advantage of them and are always accusing them of wrongful dealings.

General Manager #2

Manager #2 involves the supervision staff members in their decision making process and treats all staff with respect. Manager #2 still makes the decision and does so with efficiency and the full loyalty of their staff members. Manager #2 understands that 95% of most problems arising in the workplace are system related and finds ways to combat and correct any problems. Manager #2 believes that the staff are doing the best that they can and given the choice only want to see the business improve.

In the example above the manager would create a culture for the business. If a culture is not designed for the business and that culture adhered to then the culture will be randomly selected by the management staff in place … mainly by their undying personality.

Icon Business Solutions have designed a culture for the business to foster growth and cooperation and believe that we will all benefit from adhering to the cultural attributes in place… therefore a culture statement has been designed to support us in our endeavours.

What’s yours?

A One-Page Strategic Plan? Yes - It Is Possible

A guest spot this week on PLANNING by Verne Harnish from www.Gazelles.com

Verne is the author of “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits” and runs a consulting firm in North America that provides executive education, coaching and technology services to help mid-market companies around the world build and execute a strategic plan.

VISION – A DREAM WITH A PLAN – Most people don’t have visions, they have

dreams. The one-page planning document guides you to answer 7 simple questions

around your dream – Who, What, When, Where, How, Why and the always difficult

“but Should we or Shouldn’t we?”

You’ll see these anchor questions at the top of each column of the one-page planning document and bolded below to provide you a verbal and visual clue to match the “how to” sections with the appropriate columns on the form.

TWO OVERARCHING IDEAS – Alignment and Simplicity. The one-page planning

document is designed to encourage simplicity (there’s not a lot of space to write, so you must be concise and focused) and alignment (think of the document as a crossword puzzle, where figuratively“4 down” needs to align with “7 across.”).

FOUR KEY DECISIONS to help you move forward with purpose and direction – Essentially the “bottom lines” of the form:

1) Getting the Right People (aligned with the Core Values and Purpose)

2) Long Term Goal – BHAG

3) Strategy – Brand Promises and X Factor

4) Short Term Focus – Critical Number(s) for the year and each quarter

If you get these decisions right, everything else falls into place much easier. And you’ll likely dominate your industry, have three to five times industry average profitability, have a lot of cash, and will grow revenues at twice the industry average. In addition, customers and employees will be attracted to your business.

DOWNLOAD PLANNING DOCUMENT here and contact Andy to help you put together your one-page plan for YOUR business.

Andy Burrows

Icon Business Solutions - Coaching in Business