Making More Money! What we all want to do! Part 1 of 3
Making More Money! What we all want to do! Part 1 of 3
These Tips are intended to bring principle and help to us during any season of our business, but especially in a difficult economy. We are moving into spring and this is usually a time for increased business, and hopefully with these tips, you can make this year your most profitable year yet, regardless of what the media has to say about our economy.
One of the easiest ways to increase your bottom line is to cut on expenses, and the following are Ten Tips on how to do just that.
1. Be familiar with your business. It is one of the main jobs of a business owner to manage his business and KNOW its state of affairs. Sometimes business owners think that because things have been set up a certain way for a period of time, that things are just fine. But if you, as a business owner are truly familiar and closely managing your company, you will be familiar with your expenses, and if each expense is appropriate for your company. For example, you could be spending $1000 per month on phone and communication expense, which may not be commensurate with what you do, but if you have not read your Profit and Loss Statement lately, you may not know this, and could be overspending needlessly in this expense category. If you saved $500 a month on a particular expense category, that means you saved $6000 for the year and just added that to your bottom line. If you just did this with 3 categories of expense, you have just now added $20,000 to your bottom line for the year. As you can see, the savings in doing this can really add up, and REALLY make a difference in you company’s prosperity.
2. Make it a goal to audit every individual expense account and make sure that all your expenses are necessary and at the appropriate level for your business at least once per quarter. For example, if you have a certain service plan of some kind being used in your company, is the plan the best for your company now? Or is it something that was set up years ago? If nobody has looked at it recently, and your company needs have changed, you may be seriously overspending, just wasting money because this has not been reviewed. Also, your vendors could have better plans, as well, that could serve you better and save you money at the same time. As you know vendors do not call you to let you know how to spend less money with them. So review each expense account on your profit and loss statement and each vendor within that expense account to see if everything you have signed up for is appropriate for your company’s needs NOW.
3. Audit the individual invoices monthly. Because life is so busy sometimes, we tend to just hit the high spots in accounting, like paying the bills, depositing our checks, etc, but if we take the time to audit our bills each month, there can be some serious savings made. Vendors can be billing you incorrectly, or have added fees to your bills or they could have given you a quote and then billed you additional, all of which you may not be aware of, because the bills just usually get paid and not reviewed closely beforehand.
4. Cutting back on expenses. As we all know, if times are good, we tend to spend money easily, and then when times are hard, we tighten up, but it can be “Too Little, Too Late.” It is best to establish a protocol in your company, as the owner, of what is necessary for your business and what is not. Make hard lines in the good times and you will have money in the bank for the hard times. Sometimes we have expenses that would be considered “bells and whistles” that really are not necessary, that were purchased during the “good times”, and could easily be cut and not affect your business on any level. Seriously consider your expenses and the necessity of those expenses. One good way to do this is that if there is absolutely no negligible impact one way or the other if you were to not spend the money on a certain expense, then maybe this is one you could consider cutting in order to be prepared for that “Rainy Day,” because as we all know the “Rainy Day” always comes.
5. Review “Big Ticket” vendors, like business insurance, medical insurance, etc, and maybe see if there is something out there that might be as good or better, and for a lot less per year. Sometimes status quo can cost us a lot of money! Change is often times one of the best things we can do!
6. Spending protocols: Have in place spending protocols. Again, when times are good, we feel like we can buy this and that, and our spending rises and falls according to how we ‘feel’ or how we ‘feel’ our business is doing. If we put in place protocols that we would operate under during the hardest of times, then when it is good times, the principles and protocols are in place to protect us against our own unnecessary spending, and also manages the spending by employees. We always want to make sure we are patching any holes we may find in our boat and also make sure no one is punching any more.
7. Write out your goals on investing in assets or putting money back into the company for when times are good and you have the extra cash to spend. If it is in writing, and you determine not to deter from it, then again, we can avoid the spontaneous spending, without forethought as to what we may be doing. We can then make our goals and use the money for substantial assets or investments.
8. This cannot be said enough, be very familiar with your Profit and Loss Statement. This is your tool as a business owner to efficiently manage your company. It cannot be emphasized enough, do not go by your gut feeling or what you “think” your company is doing. Numbers never lie, and it is to your best interest to go by the numbers in order to manage your expenses.
9. Be sure that the data entry for your company is correct. You can review your Profit and Loss statement religiously, but if the data is incorrect, then your Profit and Loss statement is useless. Realize that if this tool is incorrect, then you end up making your decisions based on incorrect information, and this can have very serious consequences to the health and prosperity of your company. This is where spending a little money, can help save you a lot of money overall. It is always a good protocol to have checks and balances regarding your accounting, and so to have your books audited once per month, have them looked at by a second set of professional eyes, may be one of the most cost effective investments you can do. If you have ever heard the horror stories from bad bookkeepers to tax issues, not to mention thinking you are in the “Black,” when you are really in the “Red,” demonstrates how extremely important this is.
10. Your loyalty taken for granted and seriously costing you. There is a lot to be said about long term trust relationships, as long as those relationships are truly respecting you in that, and not taking advantage of you. But, sometimes these relationships can end up over time taking advantage of your loyalty and so it is always a good principle to look at these and make sure that this is not happening. This is another way that you can be loosing money with the status quo in place. Whether it is a vendor you have bought the same thing from for the last 10 years or your CPA that has been with you for the last 20 years, it is always good to check them once a year to be sure they are not “creeping prices up on you,” or doing things that are not to your best interest. I have had experience with bookkeepers, lawyers, CPA’s, long time vendors, where their service, pricing, etc, have changed because we get in a relationship that is now being “taken for granted.” To prevent this, it is always good to “check” them each year. Another way of saying this is to say you are “Keeping them honest!” So it may be good to get some quotes on some of these types of services, see what alternatives may be out there, and talk to colleagues and find out who they use and how much it costs, getting their recommendation. This may be a hard one to hear, but principle tells us that it is important, and again cannot be emphasized enough.
Making More Money What we all want to do Part 1 of 3 - To learn more about this author, visit Jacquie M. Adkins's Website.
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This is going to be a little mini series on the subject that we are all the most interested in doing, that is, “Making More Money!” These tips are meant to be hard hitting, realistic ways to bring in more income and save more money, so that at the end of your month, you see an increase in your bottom line. And isn’t this what it is all about, when it comes to business in our small business world?
These Tips are intended to bring principle and help to us during any season of our business, but especially in a difficult economy. We are moving into spring and this is usually a time for increased business, and hopefully with these tips, you can make this year your most profitable year yet, regardless of what the media has to say about our economy.
One of the easiest ways to increase your bottom line is to cut on expenses, and the following are Ten Tips on how to do just that.
1. Be familiar with your business. It is one of the main jobs of a business owner to manage his business and KNOW its state of affairs. Sometimes business owners think that because things have been set up a certain way for a period of time, that things are just fine. But if you, as a business owner are truly familiar and closely managing your company, you will be familiar with your expenses, and if each expense is appropriate for your company. For example, you could be spending $1000 per month on phone and communication expense, which may not be commensurate with what you do, but if you have not read your Profit and Loss Statement lately, you may not know this, and could be overspending needlessly in this expense category. If you saved $500 a month on a particular expense category, that means you saved $6000 for the year and just added that to your bottom line. If you just did this with 3 categories of expense, you have just now added $20,000 to your bottom line for the year. As you can see, the savings in doing this can really add up, and REALLY make a difference in you company’s prosperity.
2. Make it a goal to audit every individual expense account and make sure that all your expenses are necessary and at the appropriate level for your business at least once per quarter. For example, if you have a certain service plan of some kind being used in your company, is the plan the best for your company now? Or is it something that was set up years ago? If nobody has looked at it recently, and your company needs have changed, you may be seriously overspending, just wasting money because this has not been reviewed. Also, your vendors could have better plans, as well, that could serve you better and save you money at the same time. As you know vendors do not call you to let you know how to spend less money with them. So review each expense account on your profit and loss statement and each vendor within that expense account to see if everything you have signed up for is appropriate for your company’s needs NOW.
3. Audit the individual invoices monthly. Because life is so busy sometimes, we tend to just hit the high spots in accounting, like paying the bills, depositing our checks, etc, but if we take the time to audit our bills each month, there can be some serious savings made. Vendors can be billing you incorrectly, or have added fees to your bills or they could have given you a quote and then billed you additional, all of which you may not be aware of, because the bills just usually get paid and not reviewed closely beforehand.
4. Cutting back on expenses. As we all know, if times are good, we tend to spend money easily, and then when times are hard, we tighten up, but it can be “Too Little, Too Late.” It is best to establish a protocol in your company, as the owner, of what is necessary for your business and what is not. Make hard lines in the good times and you will have money in the bank for the hard times. Sometimes we have expenses that would be considered “bells and whistles” that really are not necessary, that were purchased during the “good times”, and could easily be cut and not affect your business on any level. Seriously consider your expenses and the necessity of those expenses. One good way to do this is that if there is absolutely no negligible impact one way or the other if you were to not spend the money on a certain expense, then maybe this is one you could consider cutting in order to be prepared for that “Rainy Day,” because as we all know the “Rainy Day” always comes.
5. Review “Big Ticket” vendors, like business insurance, medical insurance, etc, and maybe see if there is something out there that might be as good or better, and for a lot less per year. Sometimes status quo can cost us a lot of money! Change is often times one of the best things we can do!
6. Spending protocols: Have in place spending protocols. Again, when times are good, we feel like we can buy this and that, and our spending rises and falls according to how we ‘feel’ or how we ‘feel’ our business is doing. If we put in place protocols that we would operate under during the hardest of times, then when it is good times, the principles and protocols are in place to protect us against our own unnecessary spending, and also manages the spending by employees. We always want to make sure we are patching any holes we may find in our boat and also make sure no one is punching any more.
7. Write out your goals on investing in assets or putting money back into the company for when times are good and you have the extra cash to spend. If it is in writing, and you determine not to deter from it, then again, we can avoid the spontaneous spending, without forethought as to what we may be doing. We can then make our goals and use the money for substantial assets or investments.
8. This cannot be said enough, be very familiar with your Profit and Loss Statement. This is your tool as a business owner to efficiently manage your company. It cannot be emphasized enough, do not go by your gut feeling or what you “think” your company is doing. Numbers never lie, and it is to your best interest to go by the numbers in order to manage your expenses.
9. Be sure that the data entry for your company is correct. You can review your Profit and Loss statement religiously, but if the data is incorrect, then your Profit and Loss statement is useless. Realize that if this tool is incorrect, then you end up making your decisions based on incorrect information, and this can have very serious consequences to the health and prosperity of your company. This is where spending a little money, can help save you a lot of money overall. It is always a good protocol to have checks and balances regarding your accounting, and so to have your books audited once per month, have them looked at by a second set of professional eyes, may be one of the most cost effective investments you can do. If you have ever heard the horror stories from bad bookkeepers to tax issues, not to mention thinking you are in the “Black,” when you are really in the “Red,” demonstrates how extremely important this is.
10. Your loyalty taken for granted and seriously costing you. There is a lot to be said about long term trust relationships, as long as those relationships are truly respecting you in that, and not taking advantage of you. But, sometimes these relationships can end up over time taking advantage of your loyalty and so it is always a good principle to look at these and make sure that this is not happening. This is another way that you can be loosing money with the status quo in place. Whether it is a vendor you have bought the same thing from for the last 10 years or your CPA that has been with you for the last 20 years, it is always good to check them once a year to be sure they are not “creeping prices up on you,” or doing things that are not to your best interest. I have had experience with bookkeepers, lawyers, CPA’s, long time vendors, where their service, pricing, etc, have changed because we get in a relationship that is now being “taken for granted.” To prevent this, it is always good to “check” them each year. Another way of saying this is to say you are “Keeping them honest!” So it may be good to get some quotes on some of these types of services, see what alternatives may be out there, and talk to colleagues and find out who they use and how much it costs, getting their recommendation. This may be a hard one to hear, but principle tells us that it is important, and again cannot be emphasized enough.
Making More Money What we all want to do Part 1 of 3 - To learn more about this author, visit Jacquie M. Adkins's Website.
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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