I help people grow their businesses by doing 4 things. First I work to make sure that your financial information is accurate and reliable. Second I make sure that you understand it so that you can make informed decisions based on it.

It is my firm belief that running a business starts and ends with the numbers. Really it starts with an idea, but that idea cannot go anywhere unless you have the capital to fund it. In the ideal situation you already have a working business model in place that provides cash flow from operations which can be used to fund your new ideas. This is what I call being "self financed". Let’s say on the other hand that you do not have the luxury of being self financed? Most do not. This means you need to go to the bank for a loan or line of credit, look for venture capital, or get private financing aka a business partner who is willing to invest in exchange for equity. Very few “private” financiers will be interested in simply being re-paid with interest and if they do, the rate they ask for will be enormous. In any of these cases this is the third way that I help people.

Assuming we have accomplished the First thing (accurate and reliable financial information) then we are ready to put together two things that any bank or potential investor is going to want to see. If they exist, historical financial statements and projected financial statements. The projected part is the “Financial Model”. I create these for clients. Essentially it is a complex spreadsheet which outlines the plan for growth. We lay out the yard sticks here and see how much do we want/expect to grow and what will it take to get there. This involves writing some complex formulas in order to apply the assumptions about what the business will do from an operations standpoint to the financial outcome (aka results of operations).

Often times the financial projections need to be accompanied by a business plan. This is a detailed write-up and usually includes the backgrounds of the management team, a marketing plan and the financial model with excerpts and charts that highlight key information. Incidentally we have a great guy who does this for our clients. Everyone who has used us (ie him) has had great things to say. Once this is in place you will have a "Business Plan" which is what you need to secure investment capital.

Once you have the funding worked out then operations may commence. You can hire people if/as you need to in order to implement the plan. By now you have to have outlined a strategy because this will have been needed to develop the financial plan. So we started with the numbers, now you can operate the business.

Next the fourth thing that I do comes into play. Once operations have commenced we of course track the results of operations using accounting software like QuickBooks. Each month and sometimes more often we analyze the actual results in comparison with the projections noting and explaining any significant variances so that we understand very clearly what is happening with the operations as described by the financial information.

At the end of the day we need to see that the “idea” generates a profit. If operations are effective, a profit is earned. We measure this and then use this information to make important decisions. Is a segment profitable? If not can we make it profitable? If not we discontinue. If we can make it profitable then we must outline a new strategy identifying why it hasn’t been profitable so that we can address these issues, eliminate whatever is blocking us from profitability and make it happen. If the segment was profitable to begin with or once we’ve turned it around, then it becomes an issue of how we can make it run more efficiently and how can we make it grow. If it works we should invest additional resources into it in order to make it work even better!

In summary we can help you grow your business by addressing 4 important areas;

• Providing you with accurate and Reliable financial information.
• Making sure you as a business owner understand your business from the financial perspective.
• Projections / Forecasts for 2 purposes;
  • To measure performance on an on-going basis and make sure you are heading towards and reaching your goals.
  • To obtain financing for your new idea(s).
• Analyzing items 1-3 above to help make important decisions such as;
  • Should we hire an employee and what can we afford?
  • Should we buy or lease that piece of equipment we want?
  • Is that segment of our business profitable and what should we do about it either way?

There’s one other thing we do (if you haven’t noticed). We provide you with an incredible wealth of information and free resources such as this blog and our learning center where you can download QuickBooks classes and tools that will aid you in managing your business.

Feel free to give us a call NOW for more information on how we can help you to grow your business. (866) 945-8070.