Love Is In Your Business
Around Valentine's Day, we all think of love as relationships with loved ones... but you have a relationship with your business too.
You need to love and be in love with your business for it to thrive, and survive into the future.
I'm sure when you started out, you were super excited, passionate about it, loved what you were doing. That's why you started, right?
After you've been in business for a little while are you still jumping out of bed with the same enthusiasm?
Do you still love what you're doing with the same passion and energy that you started?
Probably not as after a little while reality kicks in.
The reality of having enough money to pay the bills. The reality of the hours you need to put in to make it work.
In order for a business to succeed you have to love your business, and you need to learn to love your numbers too. Because the numbers are everywhere.
Numbers are part of everything you do - they're the lifeblood of the business.
Whether...
The New Kid On The Block
How do you feel when you walk into a group where you don't know anyone?
Whether that's a networking event, chamber of commerce, a new job even, or in my case what I'm talking about is a MasterMind event.
I went to the situation I'm talking about a few months ago. I walked into the room and I didn't know anybody. What was interesting at the time for me was that everybody seemed to know everybody else. I was the new kid on the block. They hadn't seen each other for quite a while and they were all hugging each other and all, "Hi, how are you," and, "Oh, it's so great to see you."
The excitement level was great - everybody was welcoming each other warmly but ignoring the few of us who were new.
I think interestingly because it's a high-performing group, the majority of people that were new were fairly introverted. Speaking to some of them afterward about this was quite interesting because I thought I was the only one.
I thought I was the only person who felt like...
How to calculate the most crucial number for your business
Often the focus in business is all around revenue, but there is one crucial number that service-based businesses need to focus on even more.
Break-even.
Break-even is the minimum amount of income you need to cover all your costs. It’s the bare minimum number you need to keep your head above water each month.
So how do you figure it out?
Oddly enough, we’ll start with your non-business expenses. Your personal expenses. While break even is all about the business, we need to understand what you need to be drawing out of the business to look after yourself. Think of this as your personal break even!
1. Start by writing a list of your personal expenses
These are your portion of the household expenses to keep the house running smoothly. We’re talking mortgage, rent, electricity, telephone, clothing, entertainment, schooling, food.
If you're already drawing a certain amount out of your business - as a salary or drawings – this is a good...
Business Financials: Look to the Future, Not Over Your Shoulder
SO WE TOO SHOULD BE FOCUSING ON FINANCIAL FIGURES THAT ARE LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE WHILST USING THE HISTORICAL, PAST REPORTS TO GUIDE US.
People in agricultural businesses are great at doing this.3 Reasons to Change That Will Improve Your Future
Being comfortable in business may well be an elusive dream to you, but if you’ve been in business for a few years, I’m willing to bet that you have developed your own way of doing things that you’ve become comfortable with.
The classic case I used to see, though not so much anymore, was business owners continuing to use desktop accounting software when they could save literally hours of data entry time and cost by switching to an Internet-based system like Xero.
If you consider the phrase “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, famously used by T. Bert Lance, Director of the Office of Management and Budgets in Jimmy Carter’s 1977 administration in America, then you wouldn’t consider a change at all. But whilst it may not be broke if there’s an easier, quicker, cheaper way to do the same process or job, wouldn’t you want to change?
THREE WELL-KNOWN QUOTES THAT RESONATE WITH ME ABOUT WHY WE NEED TO MAKE...
What Are Your Business Numbers Telling You?
For your business numbers to tell you about the state of your business, you first have to take the time to look at them and therein lies the first hurdle for most business owners.
They fear what the numbers might say or know that they won’t understand them or have a mindset that they’re not good at maths and as a result, they bury their heads in the sand and/or abdicate all responsibility to their bookkeeper or accountant. None of these actions will help your business to survive let alone thrive.
I was talking to UK business leadership coach, Andrew Priestley, about how important the numbers are in business and his experience with clients who don’t know the basic numbers. It’s disappointing to me that so little is available to help redress this issue and the reason that I continue to write these blog posts. The more knowledge I share, the more I am helping people to overcome the knowledge gap that is vital for business success.
THERE ARE EFFECTIVELY...
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