| |
| |
|
Management Information |
|
|
|
How to Prepare for Your Companys Financial Future
Sooner or later, most business owners need to look for outside financing. Whether it's a line of credit with a bank to handle predictable cash crunches or a significant capital investment to improve plant and equipment, virtually every business will need access to additional funds at some point in its life. But the time to start thinking about how to make the best impression with bankers and private investors ideally begins long before you schedule an appointment to discuss your financing needs. In fact, the best preparation you can undertake to get the financing your business requires is the very same work that you should be doing to ensure that your business is financially sound in the first place. Business owners that can consistently demonstrate their ability to effectively plan the future of their company will stand out in the crowd of more haphazard entrepreneurs. Here are several things that you can do now to ensure that your search for outside financing will be successful: Determine Realistic Rates Of Growth: Unless you're the next Amazon or eBay, "pie-in-the-sky" projections about how quickly your revenues will grow will usually be seen as so much wishful thinking. Effective financial planning requires you to develop your business around realistic growth rates. Otherwise, you'll wind up in the hole before you even begin. Develop Pro-Forma P&L's, Cash Flow Reports: Once you have estimated what your revenue picture will look like, you can more accurately predict what your financing requirements will be. Put together projected profit and loss statements and cash flow estimates so that you know exactly how much financing you'll need and when you'll need it. Write Your Business Plan: Contrary to popular opinion, written business plans are not just for those who are looking for venture money. A well-written business plan can be an effective planning and management tool for every business. Often, the very act of writing about your business forces you to think through complex strategic issues, reevaluate your critical business assumptions and identify other areas where careful analysis will strengthen your chances of success. Revise, Revise, Revise: Take a look at your plan and your projections at least once a year, and revise them according to actual results. If your performance falls short of your expectations, analyze why you failed, implement the necessary changes in your business strategy and adjust your projections to more realistically forecast future results. Likewise, if you were too conservative in your projections, don't be afraid to scale up your targets. Keep Your Finance Contacts In The Loop: A good relationship with a banker or outside investor should be developed over time, not simply when you have the need. Keep your financing contacts up-to-date with what's going on in your business by providing regular financial reports and by meeting with them periodically to apprise them of how things are going. The more knowledgeable they are about your business, the more comfortable they'll be in providing you with the help that you need when you need it. William von Achen is president of Strategic Management Resources, an executive coaching and management consulting firm offering advice and counsel to business owners and senior executives. For more information visit our web site at http://www.smrweb.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Bye-Bye Boring Meetings! Make Yours Remarkable! It's the middle of the night. You've woken up with a brilliant idea on how to improve the way your business product is delivered to your customers. One Bad Apple One Bad Apple I know what you are thinking but no, I am not doing a tribute to Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5. Although I will admit that their hit song from the 70's keeps rolling around in my mind as I type this. How Managers Can Turn Failures Into Successes Although there are real, external reasons for managerial difficulty - including massive reorganization after takeovers and the realities of discrimination due to age, sex, and race - managers fail most often for reasons they themselves create.These reasons include ignoring the application of emotional intelligence, failure to recognize individual motivation to be effective, and a failure to adapt to change and rebound from setbacks. Choices in Appointing International Managers Globalization is requiring companies to make important choices about how to deploy international managers. The costs of making the wrong choice are heavy both economically and in the emotional and physical toll it can take on employees and the impact it can have on the overseas branch. Delegation: When to Delegate, Who to Delegate to There are some very simple guides for delegation.Most people delegate based on not wanting to do something. Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: The Best Incentives are Free This article relates to the Recognition competency, commonly evaluated in employee satisfaction surveys. It tells the story of how the performance of one team was affected when the powerful motivator of daily praise and recognition disappeared. Change Management "It is not the strongest species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change". -Charles DarwinThe world today is changing faster than ever before. The DNA of Motivation It really is about motivation. After all, what impels someone to climb a mountain, or go to college, or save for a car, or learn a new language or anything of a thousand things? What is it that moves someone to action from a position of comfortable stasis? The answer is motivation. Creativity Management and Behaviour What behaviour maximises the chances of thinking of great ideas? What behaviour maximises the ability to nurture ideas until they begin to reveal their potential?To begin answering the above questions we will briefly explore five areas:a) Creativity versus innovation. It is correct that the above questions are separated, as they refer to two distinct disciplines - defining problems and generating ideas (creativity) and selecting those ideas, developing and then commercialising them (innovation). People Literacy Every Manager has experienced the frustration of not understanding why one management approach that works beautifully with one employee is ineffective with another. That's because what we think would be motivating isn't always motivating to someone else. The Power of Positive Communication Communication is the key to your success at work, at play, and at home. Here are six tips that will make a difference in your life:1) People judge others by their actions. Training Adults, Not Teaching Children Adults are vulnerable to personal and professional embarrassment from poor performance in the training program. Poor performance in the classroom may become the basis for personnel decisions by supervisors or the source of ridicule by peers. I Am Not A Number - Why Too Many Change Projects Fail Many of you will recognise this quote from the 1960s TV show, "The Prisoner". Patrick McGoohan used the phrase to describe his frustration at not being treated as an individual, and being kept in the dark about what his superiors were up to in a very confusing environment. I Said Pareto Chart? Not Potato Chart! Does this sound familiar? You were hired for the new management position. You were tasked to turn the numbers around. Don't Get Down - Manage Up! "Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him." - Aldous HuxleyEver have one of those supervisors that just didn't quite get it?Perhaps you even wondered from time to time how in the world this person ever became a manager in the first place?The truth is that most of us, at some point in our career, will experience this firsthand. On The Job Training is Something You Canâ??t Afford to Skip Trained employees are more productive employees; thereâ??s no doubt about that. Whether youâ??re your only employee or whether youâ??ve got a growing staff, put OJT (on the job training) at the top of your To-Do list. Reducing the High Cost of Absenteeism Employers pay a high price for absenteeism, often more than they may realize, in terms of both financial and production losses and employee morale. Managers may view the tasks of finding a substitute employee as a short-term inconvenience; however, absenteeism frequently has more serious long-term effects. How To Decrease Profits Without Really Trying Hurting your sales efforts can be accomplished easily with the proper guidance. The following effective yet simple ideas are designed to generate results when implemented into your sales strategy. 7 Tips for Growing Your Business You Do Not Want to Ignore: Business Strategies To Easily Implement Growing companies must always be ready for the next challenge. If you fail in meeting critical business challenges you will not grow. Questions To Ask Employees You Want To Retain Times of cost cutting and downsizing has dramatically impacted the way employees look at their careers. Employees at all levels now know better than ever that job security is no longer something they can count on.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
