Firstly, I must apologise for not writing here as I should have over the last couple of weeks! I admit, I made the most of the Christmas break and I hoped to avoid work as long as I could thereafter…and I know I’m not the only one!
If you struggle with The January Blues too, I’ve written an article with tips to help keep your motivation, goals and achievements up, when business may be seemingly down…!
Recently I’ve been preparing some figures for one of my clients; sounds boring, I know, but I’m quite excited for them, the benefits that they will get from their investment, and the challenges too.
I’ve been working for this company since the end of August 2009, and the initial challenge was to evaluate what they were currently doing to bring in business on their small budget, and how they could improve it; this worked well for me, because by helping them grow then, I am now able to help them grow again now.
My recent job has been to go through all their figures to ensure that my client puts forward a good case to the bank manager for securing some substantial funds.
Therefore, I needed to get know all of the following detail:
- Their previous income before the changes we made in 2009
- Their average current income since then
- Their current expenses
- Their previous expenses
- Their current marketing activities and expenditure
- Their current market demand and competition
- Their required investment for desired marketing schemes, machinery, vehicles (real figures)
- And their required future income to meet current debts, future commitments and expenses
This client started small, and in a sense, on the back foot! They got into their market at a time where their industry was really starting to be recognised for its earning potential, growing demand and technology. Unfortunately this company started with the industry experience and service to offer, but they were starting from scratch when it came to business knowledge. With a bad credit rating and the bare minimal to invest in marketing and office administration, it could not have been harder to start and manage a business. Now this company have got to the point where, with a little bit of help along the way, their income is now a sustainable amount to run effectively; the main competition, however, is starting to run away with the new technology, and they need to invest in bigger and better machinery to keep up, which also means new vehicles, to justify their pricing structure and service quality…
But for this, I also need to provide evidence that this company can create the demand, cope with the created demand effectively, and in-turn they will be able to produce the right amount of 
money every month to repay the desired loan.
By securing these funds, it would offer the company an opportunity to design and think about the new messages they can convey and promote to their current existing and potential customers.
- What makes this new machinery and technology better?
- How, or why does it meet their needs or benefit them?
- How is it value for money?
- Why should they YOUR company?
Money is precious in this day and age, and it takes a lot more persuasion for consumers to part with it!
I asked the company what they originally thought they would need to borrow, and after I had finished with the figures, they needed another half of their original figure mentioned to sensibly meet repayments in the required time and still have cash to reinvest, or for unexpected, and unwanted surprises!
This was perhaps an unwanted surprise in its self, but with no cut backs available, this is a risk they needed to take, and anyone who has been there will understand that it’s almost like you could be signing your life away to the bank manager…
So before making any large investments or commitments like this, be sure that this is what you see your self doing in 5 or 6 years time, how will it effect your cash flow, and most importantly, your stress levels…
A stressed boss is never a happy boss, and an unhappy boss means unhappy workers, …and so on and so forth!
