1          Establish policies and procedures before you require them; determine what is needed, get input from your key employees, your accountant, and your professional advisors and consultants.  Communicate, review and revise policies and procedures on a regular basis.

2          Define your ideal client – what business is your ideal client in, where are they located, what is their position and role in the organization, what type of person are they, what the problems they want solved are and what is their current situation.

3          Prepare your budget for the new year – start by coming up with a realistic sales revenue target, estimate your cost of goods sold – both percent and dollar amount, forecast fixed expenses and variable expenses, by line item, based upon past history and future anticipation, break the annual budget into quarters and months and input it into your accounting system.

4          Plan for better cash flow – have a budget and a forecast, the forecast is an ongoing revisable tool, keep an eye on and control all spending, push for earlier customer payments, keep inventories to the minimum, consider going without a salary, or deferring payment, to maintain a positive cash flow, add employees cautiously, consider leasing rather than purchasing and sell unnecessary assets.

5          Keep current with employee performance reviews – strive for consistency and fairness, encourage employees to evaluate themselves, be honest and straight forward about poor performance, follow up on performance reviews and always document this communication.

6          Focus on customer service – make a commitment to great customer service, get to know your customers better, make sure that your employees know that effective – efficient customer help is the standard, know your product completely, keep your promises, thank customers for their referrals, don’t lose the personal human touch  and protect your existing customer and client base.

7          Strengthen your vendor relationships – consider your vendors as a part of your team, show appreciation for their good customer service, pay on time – and if you can’t then communicate and work with your vendors.

8          Focus on building business, especially in these down times – install or beef up your customer referral programs, get to know all of your customers and know what they purchase, multi task your marketing campaigns and tie in your promotions to the timing of customer requirements.

9          Learn more about your current financial statements, including the statement ratios, inventory turnover, days’ sales outstanding, and the solvency ratios. 

10       Consider hiring a business consultant – the answer to your problem and issue may not be obvious, the problem that needs fixing most is not your specialty, the consultant can bring a wealth of expertise, experience and information and the consultant can focus without taking time from your daily workload and tasks.

Ask us for help – this is what we do.

Visit our website www.desmidtconsulting.com

Thank you,

Peter DeSmidt,