THE POWER OF FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

It’s time to unroot the truth about entrepreneurial failure - Lack of Financial Responsibility! After many years in working with business owners from all walks of life, in all kinds of industries, of all ages and nationalities, I can finally and safely pinpoint the #1 reason why small businesses don’t sustain. The failure rate of all business start up’s is directly linked to the common theme of financial avoiders. This year I want to urge you all to become an excellent money manager. This will be your insurance to success!

I have the ultimate pleasure of meeting hundreds if not thousands of business owners every year from a diversified range of industries and with little similarity of their demographical profile. Yet they have a couple of things in common:

Firstly they are truly passionate about what they do. Typically they share very high work ethics with an undeterred commitment of trying to be the very best they can, hoping to turn their passion into profits. And that is where it gets tricky! Profits! I would say 9 times out of 10 when asked, entrepreneurs have no definite figure of the amount of money they made last year, last month, last week or even today. We are talking only in terms of revenue. I have not even asked about profits, yet.

Lots of business owners are trying very hard to create a financial goal for the year because they have heard so many times the importance of goal setting. So now they have a target but they have no means of measuring against it. I want you all to know, this is true for most business owners. Everyone is so busy with worrying about attracting a client, acquiring a client, retaining a client as well as the day to day operation and administration, that they feel they can’t take on the worries about the financials as well.

Reading this I truly hope, you are currently having an AHA moment. Because when you look at the order of importance of running a sustainable business, finances are right up there with clients acquisition and retention! So why don’t they pay more attention or give some focus to it? Well, I have asked many and some of them are scared that the financial rewards do not reflect the hard work they are putting in, some of them think there is not enough money yet to manage, and some of them simply don’t know where to start.

So for those of you who are scared, let me tell you it is much more stressful not knowing rather than having the control. And if you really are not making enough money to warrant the amount of time you are investing, you will want to know about it, so you can make changes to your business model.

For those of you who think there is not enough money yet to manage, that is a terrible excuse! Get into good money management habits from the start. You still need to know all the aspects of the financial situation at all times so you can measure, learn and adjust as necessary.

And for those of you who simply don’t know where to start, there are tons of resources and professionals who will support you as much or as little as you need and can afford. But ignoring it altogether, will come and bite you big if left undiscovered.

Now that you know the importance of managing your company’s money, you clearly have two choices, ignore it and become part of the statistics or control it and become successful in your business.

Get in touch if you need help with finding the right professional connection or resources to make you an excellent money manager. It’s all about the profits because profits equals money and time to do what you want to do and not what you have to!

Yours in business & life,
Conny

THE POWER OF BACK-UP

As entrepreneurs there seems to be a common misconception that you have to prove that you can do it all by yourself. Asking for help seems either like a sign of weakness or an expense, you’d rather do without! Even while I am writing this, it seems ludicrous. So make 2011 the year you leverage the power of a team to get ahead faster, more lucratively!

I am not sure about you but I am a true believer that you will get out, what you are prepared to put in. Now there are only so many hours in a day and days in a week that will restrict this equation for you. By doubling the effort, you will double the results, right? Right! By quadrupling, you will get 4 times as much back. True? True! So why are you still trying to be all things to all departments?

No doubt you are talented, passionate and knowledgeable in your industry and there are areas within your business that are not your strength or lay outside your capabilities. So doesn’t it make sense that you cover those areas with additional professionals before you run into trouble or get stifled in moving forward because you are trying to figure things out by yourself instead of asking for help?

Let me highlight by sharing a recent true story: A new client in the data services industry had been doing well in establishing and growing her business. She put in long hours and lots of energy to provide the very best service to her clients. Over 3 years she spent endless hours of delivering incredible value and was consistently improving on her services.
One day her computer played up. She had never backed up and realized she had no IT support. @#^*!  She had no maintenance package and could not get anyone to come out for days to see what the problem was. When after THREE days she finally managed to get someone out to take a look.

Now imagine the same client signing up from the start for a $50 monthly IT maintenance package which offers data back-up services, telephone support and training. Do you think the ongoing investment of $600 per year would have been a better strategy than playing Russian Roulette with her data? Not only did she loose three days of earnings, all of the clients data and in turn her entire client base due to neglect? In fact, she can count herself lucky not to have been prosecuted because of her negligence!

If she had invested in IT support from the start, the problem would have never developed or at the very least she would have had her data backed up with a mirror image of her computer at regular intervals saving her from loss of earnings, loss of clients and loss of reputation?

Don’t leave yourself open to this type of vulnerability and do start looking to fill the weak areas in your business with additional professionals, either employed or subcontracted. Strengthening your internal and external team will put you ahead of the game and save you from devastation when you could have had the back-up!

Lets work smarter in 2011!
Happy New Year,
Conny