By Alvin E. Terry, MBA/Business Consultant
Dynamic Business Builders
Believe it or not, we all have either, raced, walked, or limped to the finish line as we closeout the year 2013. If you are on the calendar year, December 31st is upon us and we should all have the same focus on exactly how did we perform based on our projections from the beginning of the year?
As we review those 12 months cash flow projections from our individual “Business Plans” that we all have crafted from 2012, we were living with the hope of achieving an exponential growth in our revenue streams. Because we did our homework with updated marketing plans, advertising plans, and super-sizing our corporate branding imprints, we were able to achieve our target goals.
Hopefully we have all reviewed our individual Business Plans and calculated constantly on a daily and monthly basis. I know that this seems to be a bit much, but in being successful, we have to be on top of our game. As I have said before, “It is a bunch of work”. Understanding the planned versus the actual in our business plans, looking at the numbers, and interpreting what the variance analysis is telling us, we should listen to the words whispering in our ears and the numbers staring us in our faces.
As small business owners, we all share the same challenges on a constant and daily basis. This is what it is all about. As far as interpreting the analysis and what it really means, make sure that you engage in with professionals that understand exactly what they mean. As a business consultant, my job is to understand what the numbers are saying.
Over the past 12 months, I have encountered countless small businesses saying that they cannot afford a consultant to advise them on how to run their business on a monthly basis. Unless you or your Accountant has an advanced degree in business, you are denying yourself of identifying the obvious and not so obvious signs of impending danger either staring you in the face or just lurking around the corner.
Please believe me; I have experienced the same encounters trying to work with others in consulting and joint venture situations over the past two years. Because of the lack of understanding and the unwillingness to learn and operate a business with certain operational controls, these ventures never got off of the ground. I have already touched on the statistics of businesses failing and so have many of the contributors to SBT Magazine Today. These statistics have been documented by various associations, organizations, banking institutions, and other governmental agencies.
We have the power in our control to stay on course and make our businesses successful and profitable. Now is the time to take a very long and hard look on our individual operations month by month to see if the right decisions were made in getting our businesses back on track by listening to the economy, listening to our customers, listening to our suppliers, listening to our accountants, listening to our bankers, and understanding our markets.
Recap:
When we all started with a renewed hope of visions and clarity of thought on just how we were going to achieve our numbers and have a profitable year in 2013 twelve months ago, I know that some of us have achieved phenomenal growth and met our numbers. Small Business Today has been able to highlight a small number of businesses that believe in doing “business by the book” and understand that the contributing writers in the Magazine are sincere and are animate in giving its readers the best that they can give of their experiences.
Now is the time to review our credit policies, shed unprofitable relationships, eliminate waste, review our employee’s performances, and enhance our banking relationships. Above all, it also the time to look at the reflection in the mirror to focus in on ourselves to see if we were the best managers we could have or should have been.
We can all strive to do better and practice those basic business principles that can ultimate lead to the achievement of our dreams of owning a successful business.
Once again it has been a pleasure to write to you. Have a great New Year beginning.
You may contact Alvin E. Terry, MBA @ [email protected] or by Cell @ 713-392-9107.
