With the 2017 year coming to a close, many business owners
have approached me with questions about getting a good start to their 2018.
While there is no one-stop solution for businesses, there are quite a few good
practices and simple approaches that can be the determining factor between a
running start versus a steady jog into the new fiscal year.
In
staying with simplicity, here are a few simple tips to making sure you will
have a good strong start into 2018:
- Knowing Your Margin: Plainly put, your margin is where you make your money. It is the dollar amount above and beyond the cost of your goods/services that you need to stay in business and grow. Hence, determining if you have Sustainable Margin will give you a good boost going into 2018.
- Check Your Pricing: A simple price check will determine if you are charging enough for your goods/services with your desired margin in place. Like all things, costs tends to sneak up on business owners over time, which results in margins decreasing and immediate loss in profit. By Getting Your Pricing Right, you are making sure you are not letting any potential profit get away from you.
- Have a Budget: Having a budget in place does several things for a business – first, it gives you a measurement of how your business is doing versus how you want it to be doing. Secondly, it instills a sense of self-discipline over you and other decision makers to keep within a set range to ensure profitability.
- Proactively Review Your Financials: It sounds simple, but the above would be absolutely pointless if you don’t at least review your financials on a regular basis. Not only is looking at your financials on a regular basis a recommended best practice, it is also essential if you want to ensure you are going in the right direction. The points I made above are all milestones for your company; comparing it against actual monthly financials will help you track your progress.
