In business, knowing your numbers is vital in survival and moving forwards
Every business, whatever its size, deals with numbers. How many sales transactions do you need in a month to make a profit? How much cash flow is required to maintain financial stability? Where do the expenses come from? Payables and receivables, all that kind of stuff.
I’ve always believed that if you don’t know your numbers, then you don’t know the score.
Why it’s important to know the score
As a Business Coach, I always tell my clients that they need to know the numbers so they can effectively exercise caution with their financial decisions. It’s like any game — if you don’t know the score, you don’t know if you’re winning or you’re losing. And if you don’t know if you’re winning or you’re losing, there’s really no point in playing the game.
The last thing you would want to do when running a business is to fly blind and take risky actions because you have no idea where to start. If you’ve got the numbers to back up your decisions, you know exactly where to go and what you’re aiming for.
Get yourself re-familiarised with the basics of finance
I’ve found that it really helps if we decide to educate ourselves about the many aspects of finance. Here’s a good place to start: if you don’t already know how you might want to learn how to read financial statements. This is one statement that will tell you all about your money — where it came from, where most of it is going, and where the rest of it is right now.
Try to get a fundamental understanding of the critical aspects of financial statements: the cash flow, the balance sheet, the income statement, and all those other financial reports. You don’t have to master these concepts, but understanding them will make it easier for you to make financial decisions in the future.
Numbers are no use if they are not up-to-date
Aside from knowing your numbers, it’s also important to make sure our numbers are up-to-date. For my clients, my recommendation has always been to have their numbers updated every month. I think there’s no point in looking at your accounts at the end of the year when there’s already nothing you do about it. That’s why it should be a monthly report, except maybe for those in faster-moving environments where it should be weekly.
Numbers need to be up-to-date so you can compare them against what you forecast to happen. This helps you make the necessary adjustments as you go along.
It won’t hurt to seek professional guidance
I know you take your personal finances and entrepreneurial finances seriously, and that you want to make sure you’re doing the right things before it’s too late. When it comes to running a business, one thing is certain: at times, it will feel like you can’t keep up with everything. Financial management can be difficult, and it’s not uncommon feeling for you to become overwhelmed.
Our Cycle of Business Success Workshops are game-changers for business owners. They love what they see, and it completely fires them up. You’ve got nothing to lose by coming along to these free events and everything to gain. Why wait? Don’t put off until tomorrow what you absolutely know you should do today. I’ve helped thousands of business owners to build and grow their businesses – and they’ve never looked back.
Guaranteed Investment
Everything I do is bound by my solid gold guarantees. Regardless of which programme we work on, if you do what you said you were going to do, when you were going to do it, you will get a return on investment guaranteed. If not, then I will refund you the difference. Yes, I am guaranteeing your investment.
