Posted on Monday,

Your Year-End Financial Checklist: Closing Strong and Planning for 2025

As the year winds down, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are at a pivotal crossroads: it’s time to finish strong while setting the stage for even greater success in 2025. This is your opportunity to assess whether your financial performance hit your goals, tackle any remaining obstacles, and lay out a bold strategy for the future.

To help you navigate this critical transition, I’ve created a comprehensive checklist to ensure you close out the year with confidence and kick off the new one with a solid financial foundation. I’m here to help you close out 2024 on a high note and set the stage for a prosperous year ahead!

1. Reconcile Accounts and Review Financial Data.

To set a strong foundation for the year ahead, begin by ensuring your financial records are both accurate and up to date:

Reconcile all accounts: Reconcile bank accounts, credit cards, and loan balances to ensure they match your records. This helps avoid discrepancies that could affect decision-making.
Review key financial statements: Analyze your profit and loss statement, balance sheet, and cash flow to identify any trends, areas for improvement, and any potential red flags. This offers valuable insights into your business’s financial health.
Resolve outstanding invoices and bills: Address any unpaid invoices or overdue bills to ensure your cash flow remains steady.

Tip: Having accurate financial data is crucial for making well-informed decisions as you close out 2024 and prepare for a successful 2025.

2. Set Your Financial Baseline for 2025.

Building a strong financial plan for the upcoming year starts with a thorough analysis of your performance in 2024. This will help you set clear, achievable goals for 2025:

Assess profitability: Dive deep into the performance of individual products, services, or business units to understand what’s driving success and where improvements are needed. This breakdown will guide you in prioritizing the most profitable areas.
Evaluate expenses: Review your spending and identify areas where cost-control measures can be introduced in 2025. Look for patterns in overspending or inefficiencies that can be streamlined.
Analyze cash flow trends: Examine your cash flow over the past year to pinpoint when inflows and outflows peak. Understanding these patterns will help you plan more effectively for liquidity management in the year ahead.

Example: Use this analysis to set goals for key financial metrics, such as gross margins, asset turnover, and working capital.

3. Solidify Your 2025 Financial Plan.

Kick off the new year with a clear, actionable roadmap that positions your business for success:

Create a sales forecast: Analyze current trends, market conditions, and upcoming opportunities to project your sales for 2025. Use this forecast to set realistic revenue targets and align resources accordingly.
Develop a cash flow projection: Use tools like my 13-week Cash Flow Forecast to map out expected cash inflows and outflows. This will ensure you have the liquidity needed for both daily operations and growth initiatives throughout the year.
Outline a budget: Build a budget that balances strategic investments with cost-saving measures. Prioritize spending that drives growth while maintaining a focus on efficiency and profitability.

Pro Tip: Build in flexibility within your financial plan to quickly pivot in response to unexpected challenges or emerging opportunities in 2025.

4. Streamline Year-End Processes
Efficient year-end processes are key to saving time and reducing stress. Make sure you finish the year strong with these actionable steps:

Finalize all 2024 transactions: Reconcile accounts, close out any pending invoices, and ensure all customer payments are received before December 31.
Follow up on overdue receivables: Act now to collect any outstanding payments and improve your cash flow before the year closes.
Prepare for tax season: Double-check that all deductible expenses are well-documented and ready for tax filing.

Action Step: Automate routine tasks, such as setting up reminders for accounts receivable and payable, to ensure smooth year-end operations and free up time for strategic tasks.

5. Align Your Team for Success
Your team is essential to closing the year on a high note and hitting your 2025 goals. Get them on the same page with these strategies:

Set clear expectations: Make sure your team knows exactly what’s expected in the final stretch—whether it’s wrapping up client projects or clearing out inventory.
Review your 2025 financial plan: Share your financial strategy with key team members to ensure everyone is aligned on priorities and performance targets.
Evaluate compensation plans and incentives: Assess how bonuses or incentives can drive your team’s motivation and performance as you enter the new year.

Consider: Boost morale by offering year-end bonuses or hosting team celebrations to celebrate your collective success and inspire energy for the year ahead.

6. Optimize Your Tax Position
Take advantage of your final opportunity to make strategic moves that can reduce your tax burden:

Accelerate expenses: Purchasing equipment or supplies before year-end can increase your deductions for 2024.
Defer income: Push back invoicing or payments until January to shift income into 2025 and potentially lower your tax liability this year.
Consult your tax advisor: Review available tax credits or deductions to ensure you take full advantage of every opportunity.

Remember: Having a solid relationship with financial professionals gives you another layer of wisdom and resources.

7. Evaluate and Improve Financial Systems
The end of the year is the perfect time to assess whether your current financial systems are meeting your needs and setting you up for success in the coming year:

Identify bottlenecks: Review your processes, from reporting to cash flow management, and pinpoint any areas that need improvement.
Invest in better tools: Consider upgrading your financial software or tools to improve efficiency, accuracy, and decision-making in the new year. Hiring a fractional CFO is another possibility.
Set clear KPIs: Establish key performance indicators to track your financial health and ensure you meet your targets throughout 2025.

Think About: Ask the staff that use the tools the most to give you feedback.

Key Takeaway
Closing 2024 with a solid financial position and a clear strategy for 2025 is essential for SMBs aiming for sustained growth and profitability. You’ll enter the new year with confidence and clarity by streamlining your year-end processes, aligning your team, optimizing your tax position, and improving your financial systems.

Need help navigating year-end challenges or building a strategic financial plan for 2025?
Reach out to Verbeck Associates for expert guidance from a Fractional CFO. Let’s set your business up for success in the new year!

Posted on Wednesday,

Building a Strong Business: Compensation Plan Lessons from BE 2.0

I’ve always been a fan of great business books, and lately, I’ve been diving into Jim Collins’ BE 2.0 (Beyond Entrepreneurship). This book is packed with insights, many of which feel especially relevant to the challenges most companies face today. One principle that stood out for me was a key concept from his classic Good to Great: “First who, then what”—which means getting the right people on the bus before deciding where to drive it.

Collins emphasizes the importance of aligning your team with your company’s values and ensuring they’re in the right roles. It’s not just about talent; it’s about passion, long-term vision, and fit.

The Problem with Compensation Plans

One powerful lesson in BE 2.0 is that compensation plans alone do not guarantee performance. Collins highlights that some of the highest-paid CEOs aren’t necessarily leading the best companies. In fact, short-term financial incentives can sometimes lead to behavior that undermines long-term success, even if they boost short-term results.

I’ve seen this firsthand. I implemented an incentive program several years ago that failed because it created unhealthy competition. The plan prioritized individual success over team success, and the friction between employees started to affect the culture. It was clear that I hadn’t read the culture correctly. After tweaking the plan to encourage more teamwork, the results improved—not just for the company but for the employees themselves.

Individual vs. Team Incentives: Finding the Balance

What fascinated me about Collins’ perspective is the evidence he presents on individual versus team rewards. He argues that short-term rewards can backfire, and I’ve seen both sides. While I appreciate his viewpoint, I tend to favor a balanced approach, especially for smaller businesses. I often see a mix of individual and team-based incentives work best in SMBs, particularly with smaller teams where roles and contributions are more visible.

For example, I’m currently working with a client who’s facing this challenge. They have a “star performer” who isn’t delivering, while the rest of the team is stepping up to pick up the slack. The issue? Their compensation plan heavily favors individual performance, and it’s starting to erode the sense of fairness within the team. To solve this, we’re overhauling their comp plan to reflect not just individual contributions but also team efforts. However, before making any changes, we’re re-forecasting the entire business to ensure the new plan aligns with the company’s strategy and market conditions.

Back to Basics: Using KPIs to Guide Compensation

As part of this process, we’re going back to basics by focusing on key performance indicators (KPIs). For this client, we’re using an 80/20 profitability matrix to evaluate their customer base. By analyzing sales and gross margins, we can identify which customers contribute most to profitability and which ones may need to be let go.

For example, we’ve developed a 90-day strategy to either move low-value customers to higher-margin categories or phase them out. Don’t wing it—having a business plan with targets is essential. Many business owners rely on gut feel, and while that can work, it’s critical to back it up with solid data. That’s why we’re using a simple forecast model, which includes an income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement tied to customer-specific sales forecasts.

Guidelines for Building a Compensation Plan

If you’re considering developing or revamping a compensation plan, here are a few key points to keep in mind:

Assess your culture: Is your team more collaborative or competitive? Do they value individual rewards or group success?
Align with your values: Make sure your compensation plan reflects your company’s core values.
Use accurate, timely data: Ensure you have reliable monthly financials to understand what revenue you have available for incentives.
Test and adjust: Trial your incentive plans before committing. Gather feedback from key stakeholders and make tweaks based on performance.
Keep it flexible: Never lock a compensation plan in stone. Business environments change, and your plans should evolve with them. If stability is needed, pay fair base salaries, but be transparent about potential changes to incentive plans.

There’s no perfect compensation plan, but a well-thought-out incentive structure can drive results, boost morale, and increase profitability. For SMBs, I often prefer short-term goals with regular rewards, such as quarterly incentives. This approach fosters urgency, accountability, and results without sacrificing long-term thinking.

If you’re developing or revamping your compensation plan and want to ensure it drives results while supporting your company culture, let’s talk. Contact me to discuss how we can create a plan that fits your business.

Posted on Monday,

7 Ways to Help Your Small Business Perform Better

“What does a fractional CFO do?” I’ve been getting a lot of questions like this lately. It’s prompted me to think about my role and how I help companies. Turns out, it’s a position with multi-faceted responsibilities, but the bottom line is

My CFO firm helps small and medium-sized business (SMB) owners perform better.

I admit, that’s a pretty broad statement. Many different elements of business fall under the goal of “performing better.” Owners want to make more profit, grow in size, efficiently deliver better customer value, and perhaps most importantly, experience more fulfillment with better control and have less stress as they lead their company.

As a Fractional CFO for over 18 years, I’ve enjoyed coming alongside awesome small business owners to help them reach their goals and sleep better at night while doing so. I am continually learning and reading books and getting information from other successful business people such as Geno Wickman from EOS Systems, Michael Gerber author of the E-Myth), Kevin O’Leary, Brendon Burchard, and Tony Robbins. Many of their doctrines influence how I help my clients. Here is a list of solid recommendations that have grown from reading leaders such as these and the experience I’ve gained “boots on the ground” with clients.

These aren’t in priority order as they are all valuable toward the goal of performing better. I encourage you to pick the one or two that resonate most with you.

1. Know your numbers. I cannot stress enough how important it is to understand your company’s financial picture (even though you tell me, “But I’m not an accountant!“) Many business owners don’t even understand the basics and that’s a recipe for failure.

2. Implement four pillars of strong financial practices: a) solid numbers, b) forecasts, c) weekly scorecard reviews, and d) monthly CFO reports. All of these are outlined in more detail in my Be Your Own CFO booklet, a 29-page guide to help business owners have better CFO practices. Free when you subscribe to my blog at VerbeckAssociates.com.

3. Show up strong and practice a daily rhythm. What I mean by “show up strong” is to come to work with a great attitude with physical/mental readiness to work hard. A daily rhythm, unique to you but repeatable, will help you be even more productive, perform better over the long term, and let you push through the messy middle we all get stuck in from time to time.

4. Plan your time and work your plan. I find it helpful to plan my week in time blocks, with periods focused on client service, business development, exercise, etc. My calendar is detailed and consistent week to week. As Michael Hyatt has said, “What gets calendared gets done.” Even if your day goes off track, having a planned approach can help you regroup or keep you motivated to complete the day’s goals. It also helps you identify which types of interruptions routinely knock you off track so you can come up with strategies to eliminate or reduce them.

5. Cultivate an attitude of growth. One of my early mentors, Alan Weiss, said “If you are not innovating, you’re not growing, and if you aren’t growing, you’re dying.” Stability is vastly overrated. I love that. The guy is still progressive and considered a rock star in the consulting world.

6. Document processes. Well-thought-out systems and processes help small businesses scale. Documenting forces you to slow down and evaluate each step, making it teachable to others on the team (videos and screen recordings can help.) Plus, it can help you identify tasks that may no longer be necessary. And when you need to go on vacation, (and you do NEED to go on vacation) documented processes help work continue in your absence.

7. Remember that slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. We live in a world that prioritizes rushing, speed, and “efficiency.” While it’s great to get systems in place that help us move more quickly through day-to-day minutia, it’s also important to slow down and not have to go back and re-do tasks or fix small errors. Pay attention to mistakes you or your team are making. Are you encouraging people to move too quickly (or making yourself move too quickly?) Naturally fast-paced people need to consciously slow down and learn to double-check work (and naturally slow-paced people may need to trust themselves after one or two run-throughs rather than going over things several times.)

What principles have you found helpful in running your small business? I’d love to hear from you! Contact me!

Posted on Thursday,

Keep Your Business Healthy: The Four Pillars of Sound Financial Practices

There are 33.5 million small to mid-sized businesses in America with $12 trillion market value. But the failure rate of all businesses is incredibly high. 22% of business startups fail in the first year, and 50% of new businesses fail within the first five years – and 70% fail within ten years.*

Operational savvy doesn’t always come easy, and a business owner sometimes, out of necessity, has to put on hats they aren’t equipped. I often hear “But I’m not an accountant!” and I understand. Still, if you are going to own a business, you have to take responsibility for the financial aspects of your business as well as other operations and product/service development and sales. You just have to choose what direction to go to set yourself up for success – whether that means handling the financial practices yourself, hiring a fractional CFO, or hiring a financial specialist as an employee.

Whether you decide to have a separate CFO or decide to wear the hat yourself for a while, the first crucial step is to grasp the foundational principles of financial management. I break this down into a 4-pillar process to take small businesses to the next level – helping business owners see obstacles coming and develop disciplines.

These pillars are:

1. Understanding: Knowing the basics about typical financial inputs and what the data reveals.

The fundamental inputs for most businesses include:

Revenue: The income generated from your products or services
Expenses: all costs involved in running your business
Profit: what is left after expenses are deducted from revenue – a healthy profit is your ultimate goal
Cash flow: the movement of money in and out of your business, determining your operational flexibility and financial stability.

2. Forecasting and Budgeting: predicting expected results and cash flow and creating a budget.

Forecasting is a core process to predict your company’s results and financial performance. While it’s always inexact, it is a view of your company based on historical data, current market trends, and expected future events. It’s a critical component of strategic planning, providing the insights needed to make informed decisions.

Budgeting is the process of creating a financial plan for your business. It translates the insights gained from forecasting into detailed action plans, allocating resources to achieve strategic goals.

3. Analyzing: using a weekly dashboard to determine where you stand.

Weekly reporting provides an immediate view of your business’s financial health, enabling quick adjustments to operations and strategy. A weekly dashboard centralizes critical financial data, offering a snapshot of performance and trends at a glance.

Components of a Weekly Dashboard:

Cash and Inventory Position: This includes the current cash balance and any significant changes from the previous week (i.e. from costs) as well as your current inventory status, including any critical shortages or overstocks
Accounts Receivable: Overview of outstanding invoices, highlighting any past-due accounts
Accounts Payable: Summary of upcoming and overdue payments
Sales Figures: Weekly sales totals compared to projections and historical data.

4. Reporting and Reviewing: producing and going over monthly CFO reports to stay aligned with your mission.

Financial reporting is critical for businesses of all sizes, providing key insights into financial performance, health, and the decision-making process. Financial transparency is the key to operating a business with integrity. Monthly CFO reports form the basis of communication with stakeholders, including investors, creditors, and regulatory bodies.

The key components of a monthly CFO report circle us back around to item 1.

Income Statement: Shows revenue, expenses, and profit over a specific period, highlighting the company’s operational efficiency
Balance Sheet: Provides a snapshot of the company’s assets, liabilities, and equity at a specific point in time, indicating financial stability
Cash Flow Statement: Details the inflows and outflows of cash, offering insights into the company’s liquidity and ability to generate cash.

Additional Analysis reports such as forecast-to-actual, historical-to-actual, KPI’s, asset and cash flow efficiency, and Continual Improvement reports can be very helpful for wise leadership decision-making.

There’s a lot more to running a business than creating a product or service and selling it. Be sure you handle your business financial operations with integrity, consistency, and open-mindedness.

I’m here to help! Contact me for a conversation about where you currently stand and how, together, we can strengthen your business using the four pillars.

* Statistics per: U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Posted on Monday,

What Does a Fractional CFO Do?

I had a conversation the other day with a small group of venture capitalists and seed fund investors. I love talking with these types of people – they are so passionate and have super creative business ideas. When I shared my Fractional CFO services framework and approach to helping smaller growing companies, I also was able to answer the question

What does a fractional CFO do?

We are a guide who provides strategic financial guidance and expertise to businesses on a part-time contractual basis, helping businesses manage cash flow, plan growth strategies, and make informed decisions without the cost of a full-time executive. This role is especially beneficial for startups and SMBs needing flexible, high-level financial advice tailored to their specific challenges and opportunities.

While every business is slightly different from the next and may require a slightly different approach, most businesses need the following data every month in addition to keeping up with the bookkeeping processes that lead to a strong monthly close:

Three basic financial statements: (income statement, balance sheet, statement of cash flow)
Monthly 12-month forecast
Weekly scorecard comparing weekly KPIs to expectations
13-week cash flow forecast
Monthly CFO reports
A regular, intentional meeting to discuss the results.

I generally start conversations with potential clients by ensuring they understand the three basic financial statements and why these are so important. These are:

Income statement. Also known as the P&L (Profit & Loss) statement, shows revenue, expenses, and net profit over a certain period. Net income is zeroed out annually and moved to what is called “retained earnings” (which is a balance sheet account and means income that has stayed in the business since inception). At the beginning of the new year, you start pushing the ball up the hill again.

Balance sheet. This shows your assets, liabilities, and net worth at a snapshot in time. It shows what you own and what you owe on a particular date. The assets and liabilities are listed in the ‘ease of liquidity’ order. Liquidity refers to how quickly you can turn those assets into cash.

Cash flow statement. This shows sources and uses of cash categorized by operating activities, investing activities, and financing activities. (In other words, cash flow from operations, from investing, and financing activities.)

Then we look at the other elements:

The monthly forecast/weekly scorecards generally take a few iterations to become useful for a company. We concentrate on the monthly, first. Once it is solid, then we can more easily parse down the numbers to a weekly forecast and develop the weekly scorecard.

Weekly Scorecard comparing KPIs: Every company’s KPIs are slightly different, and we may need to track a variety of specific things depending on quarterly goals. Business owners usually have questions like:
What sort of data should we be tracking? How many KPIs should we track? Generally, you should track revenue, drivers of revenue, gross margin, labor utilization, cost efficiency, asset velocity, and cash and cash flow – actual compared to expected results for the week.

I track all this in Excel. There are some awesome tools out there for dashboards that are fully automated and contain tons of great information and graphics. I love the look but I find the best scorecards are prepared manually and contain surprisingly little data. This allows everyone to focus on the highest-value data points. High-tech is great, but we still need high-touch.

The 13-week cash flow forecast contains cash receipts and cash disbursements by week for three months. In a turnaround, the 13WCFF is updated daily, but for a typical business, I like to update it weekly so it’s always a rolling 3-month look forward.

CFO Reports (or Monthly Reporting Package, or Monthly Operating Report) are produced monthly. They vary by business but generally contain the three basic financial statements, the 12-month forecasted P&L and Balance Sheet, the current month’s P&L compared to forecast, trend graphs for sales, margin, asset velocity measures, and significant goal tracking, top 5 company goals and status, current 13-WCFF, top customers for the month and year to date.

Regardless of the format, this data should be prepared and discussed regularly. This is where an intentional meeting between CFO and business leaders comes in. Weekly is best but monthly can work. This way you’ll see if you are hitting the numbers or not, and helps you course-correct more easily if you aren’t. It also helps to avoid big surprises later in the year. It allows the CFO to become a vital ally – not just presenting numbers, but helping you understand “why” the numbers are a certain way. A discerning CFO will also have good suggestions for more success in reaching goals.

If your business doesn’t have a CFO, you should seriously consider one. If I can help your company with its fractional CFO needs, contact me!

Posted on Monday,

If It Ain’t Broke …

We’ve all heard the old saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

There’s a lot of wisdom in that. When you’ve implemented an efficient plan (i.e. a quick month-end close, financial processes that keep good data in front of you, etc.) it’s a good idea not to mess with it – to a point. But it’s never good to permanently rest in a routine that isn’t reviewed regularly. It’s then that we fall into a rut, otherwise known as a casket without a top.

And forgive the pun, but if you are not growing, you are dying. Growing requires the willingness to change.

I am working with several new clients who are making changes in their business. Change isn’t easy, but it is necessary to improve. It’s been good to see some of the positive outcomes from this process.

As I mentioned in a previous post, assessing your business regularly and recognizing the need to change is step one. Even if things are going well, the waterline is rising, and things can always be better. We need to continuously deal with any leaks, including new ones that may spring up.

So how do we do this?

I suggest a shift of mindset, based on a fabulous book I read many years ago: If it Ain’t Broke…Break It!: And Other Unconventional Wisdom for a Changing Business World by Robert F. Kriegel and Louis Palter. Their advice shared in the early ’90s is timeless. We must have a mindset toward embracing change, innovation, and continuous improvement as keys to success in both personal and professional life.

Here are some key thoughts from the book, along with a question you can ask yourself in assessing how your business and team are doing when it comes to each theme:

1. Embrace Change: it’s important to be open to change rather than cling to established norms or practices. Change can lead to improvement and growth.

Question: What change in process did we recently implement or consider as a way to improve our productivity?

2. Innovation is Key: Innovation is significant in driving progress and success. When you encourage a culture of innovation, you’ll see breakthroughs and competitive advantages.

Question: Does my team feel comfortable bringing me new ideas?

3. Challenge Conventions: Rather than accept that “This is how it’s always been done,” encourage questioning and challenge conventional wisdom.

Question: What is something we have been doing for years that we should consider changing or eliminating from our processes or policies?

4. Risk-Taking: calculated risks are essential for growth and advancement. Rather than fearing failure, consider it a valuable learning experience.

Question: When did we take a risk in the last 3-12 months? If we haven’t been willing to take a calculated risk, why are we holding back?

5. Continuous Improvement: Individuals and organizations should always seek ways to evolve and enhance their processes and products.

Question: What are three key areas where we are working on improvements in the company? (i.e. personnel, environment, culture)

6. Adaptability: In today’s rapidly changing world, being adaptable is crucial. During the pandemic, we saw a critical need to pivot and adjust to new circumstances and challenges.

Question: While we are not in an active pandemic now, what other concerns threaten our success? How do we need to re-position ourselves to stay relevant?

7. Creativity and Experimentation: encouraging these can lead to new ideas and solutions not considered before.

Question: What is a problem we are experiencing that could use a creative solution? What ideas can we consider for a while without shooting them down immediately?

8. Leadership Role: leaders are the critical component in fostering a culture of innovation and change. They should lead by example, supporting initiatives that promote growth and innovation.

Question: How strong is our leadership team? Do we inspire growth and innovation, or are we stuck in our ways? What would our employees say if guaranteed anonymity?

Some of these questions may be uncomfortable, but I assure you they are important. Culture affects the bottom line. An unhappy, stressed out, unproductive team creates leaks that sink your business success and satisfaction. A team that has the freedom to bring up fresh ideas, evaluate processes objectively, and follow values modeled by their leaders will help create an organization that makes money and contributes positively to society.

Which would you rather have?

Posted on Thursday,

Unlocking Business Success with Simplified KPIs

In the vast sea of business complexities, the need for a reliable compass cannot be overstated. Enter Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – the navigational tools that help business owners chart their course and make informed decisions. In this blog post, we’ll explore the art of simplifying KPIs and their pivotal role in guiding your business journey.

Embracing Simplicity in a Complex World

Complexity tends to sneak in as time marches on. And being a business owner is difficult. We often find ourselves facing challenging moments, as a contact of mine did when his sales pitches to a large company ended in rejection. This, however, is normal and part of the journey. Most sales calls receive the dreaded “no,” a harsh reality of the sales world. In the face of adversity, we must not lose heart; instead, we should expect challenges and remain steadfast in our vision.

Our North Star in this tumultuous sea is a clear and unwavering vision. Every business owner must ask themselves: “Where are we heading, and what is our vision?” A clear vision will serve as a guiding light through turbulent waters and should influence the type of information you track and reporting that you do.

Simplicity in Reporting and KPIs

Just as life’s complexities grow with age, so do the complexities in business operations and reporting. If you’ve been in business for a while, you’ve likely seen your processes and reports become increasingly intricate and complicated. It’s just the way it is. With more time, things get more complex.

The key, however, is to keep things simple. The allure of intricate dashboards with tons of data points and graphs is enticing, but often it becomes challenging to see what truly matters. To cut through the noise, it’s essential to maintain a straightforward approach.

Organize and Focus with KPIs

One effective way to streamline your business’s focus is by categorizing KPIs on your weekly Company Scorecard with categories such as marketing, sales, operations, and finance, and assign teams to brainstorm and track three to five key metrics in each category. This approach narrows the focus, ensuring that each KPI contributes to the overall value of your business. And each KPI has a person (or you) accountable for it.

The Power of the Weekly Review

Weekly reviews are the engine that keeps your business on course. This routine check-in allows for the timely identification of issues and the resolution of bottlenecks. It’s the glue that aligns everyone with the same KPIs and growth targets, fostering unity and clarity within the team.

Measuring Progress with KPIs

When it comes to KPIs, consider the following areas: Growth, Fulfillment, and Innovation. To measure your business’s performance, keep an eye on a range of metrics tied to these areas, such as:

Growth: Revenue growth, monthly recurring revenue, pipeline, customer acquisition cost, gross margin, net profit margin, monthly active users, activation rate
Fulfillment: Order fulfillment time, inventory turnover, on-time delivery rate, total support tickets, average response time, number of clients onboarded, renewal rate, net promoter score
Innovation: R&D ratio, new product launches, time to market for new products, milestone achievement, churn.

Additionally, analyze other vital KPIs, including unique visitors, cost per acquisition, return on ad spend, average customer value, new customers, sales, sales leads, qualification calls, close rate, booked revenue, average deal size, and pipeline.

A Deeper Dive into KPIs

If you’re looking to expand your KPI knowledge, consider delving into the following key metrics:

Days of inventory on hand is found by dividing the average Inventory by the ratio of cost of goods sold to the number of days in the period. It indicates the average number of days it takes for a company to sell its entire inventory, providing insights into inventory management efficiency.
Gross profit margin: Determined by subtracting cost of sales from total sales, then dividing the result by total sales.
Working capital ratio: Computed by dividing current assets by current liabilities.
Account payable turnover: Found by dividing net credit purchases by the average accounts payable. It measures how many times, on average, a company pays its accounts payable during a specific period, providing insights into the efficiency of the company’s payment process and its relationship with suppliers.
Days Sales Outstanding (DSO): found by multiplying the ratio of average accounts receivable to average daily credit sales by the number of days in the period. It represents the average number of days it takes for a company to collect payment after a sale has been made on credit.

KPIs are the lighthouse that guides your business towards success. Keep your compass simple, focus on your vision, and harness the power of weekly reviews to ensure everyone is on the same page. With the right KPIs in your arsenal, you’ll navigate the intricate waters of the business world with confidence and clarity.

Contact me for help establishing your KPIs and creating a helpful dashboard!

Posted on Wednesday,

Budget Time: Use the 80/20 Framework to Keep Costs in Line

You’ve probably heard of the 80/20 concept (also known as the Pareto Principle), where 20% of whatever you are considering (i.e. workers, technology, inventory) is responsible for 80% of the results (productivity, sales, and profit.) The fourth quarter of the year is budget season and a great time to take a closer look at your overall cost structure within the 80/20 framework. It’s time to ask yourself what you REALLY need to run and continue to grow your business.

When addressing costs – start with the larger impact and more important things. Dive into the right problems.

Don’t start with something that will have a minimal impact. I like to value stream map key processes with stickies and a whiteboard. Note people and processes around the sales and delivery experience and the customer/vendor touch points like invoicing and getting paid, improving customer delivery, paying vendors, and maximizing cash outlays.

Here are three areas to take a careful look at, with an 80/20 perspective.

PEOPLE

So much of business is based on unknown revenue numbers, and people are your biggest expense. An unfortunate reality is that many times, the people who got you to where you are now are not the same people to get you to where you need to go next. They cannot change and develop as the business does. That’s why budget time is also a good time to review your organization chart. You’ll often see that 80% of your results are coming from 20% of your team. Can you identify the 80% that are less productive and think of ways to scale, or invest in increasing their contribution through training, for example? Are there ways to continue growing your revenue while not growing (and perhaps even reducing) your team as you look into next year?

INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENTS

Another cost that can be significant is Infrastructure investments – money you put into the business for tools, applications, equipment, and more. These generally come in what I call stairsteps, not in a linear path. It’s tempting to be attracted, for example, to the bells and whistles of new technology, but it’s quite possible that only 20% of the features would contribute to 80% of your results. Ask yourself if investment into new tech or equipment would overcomplicate the workplace rather than be the solution you need. Will the learning curve create other problems/costs? It’s essential to ensure that these investments will actually elevate productivity and address challenges.

For example, you may decide that a new ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system will streamline tasks and management of employees. This can be true! But if the system is overcomplicated, and you have to retain an on-call consultant for a year, is that an effective use of funds in the long run? It could be, but there may also be simpler solutions available using applications you already have. Perhaps some additional training on current applications so users can move from beginner to intermediate or advanced would cost less and work just as well.

Bonus tip: One way to help separate the problem and solution is to identify and address the pain points in one meeting, give time for the assigned team members to research potential solutions, and then have a separate meeting to consider the options they discovered. This allows your team to determine the core problem without having to provide potential fixes right away. A clear understanding of the problem can be extremely helpful in researching solutions.

VENDOR INVOICES / CREDIT CARD CHARGES

Face it – all companies are leaking, some worse than others. Another cost to consider is what your vendors are charging. It’s not unusual for companies to be paying for services and products they aren’t using regularly (or don’t need more of right now.) Again, 20% of the services and products you receive could be covering 80% of your needs.

I recommend that you review each vendor invoice and credit card charge for the next 45 days and determine if each item is necessary. When I’m doing this for a client, I ask the obvious question – “What is this for?” Other questions include, “Are the services billed leading to the expected outcome?” “Are you paying for a subscription for an app you only use twice a year?” “Are automatic deliveries keeping your supplies overstocked?” “Are these conference expenses leading to the collaboration, soft skill enhancement, or team bonding or are you essentially providing your employees a paid-for trip/vacation?” (If that’s something you want to budget for, fine, but be intentional about it.)

If you need a more objective eye, there is a group of consultants like my colleague Steve Thompson at Integrity Cost Consulting. He can analyze your vendor spend to look for historical overpayments. His company earns their fee based on the savings they find. I love that! I like to track savings based on hard savings AND process improvements as a critical success factor.

Cost analysis exercises are generally a helpful practice for most companies, even if they can be somewhat painful. Use this 80/20 framework to budget wisely.

Additional tips:

Ask yourself not only about getting the best price – but getting the best value.
When cuts are necessary, be sure you cut deep enough the first time.
Do cost analysis on a regular basis.

Need some objective input? I can help. Contact me!

Posted on Tuesday,

Three Ways to Grow Your Business

When it comes to ways to grow your business, it may not be that you lack time but that you need to do some prioritizing. It’s important to constantly evaluate your growth and progress. With the year already well underway, it’s time to take a closer look at how your business is doing. Is it multiplying? Are revenues increasing? If not, here are three ways to grow your business.

Let’s dive into each of these and see how you can measure and improve your progress, using a fictional example of a mid-size coffee roaster, employing 40 people, and supplying over 50 coffee shops with custom-roasted blends.

Add More Customers

This is the most obvious way to grow your business. The more customers you have, the more potential sales you can make. Look at your metrics for new customer acquisition. How many new customers have you gained since this year began? If you aren’t seeing the numbers you’d like to see, do you need to adjust your marketing strategy or invest in new acquisition channels?

Example: ABCoffee expands their strategic social media campaign to target not just their base city and suburbs, but counties 100-200 miles away. Their sales reps do “coffee shop tours” of shops in this expanded area, sharing photos their marketing specialist then posts to encourage people to visit the shops, and leaving a packet of information and sample roasts to the owners of the shops, so they will consider carrying ABCoffee.

Increase How Much You Sell to Each Customer

Another way to grow your business is to increase the amount that each customer spends with you. Look at your average order size. Has it increased compared to previous years? Consider offering bundle deals, or upsell items during the checkout process. I’m sure you’ve seen stores that have multiple low-price items in the checkout area or have been asked online if you want to add “these regular items” to your cart. Always try to add another line item to an invoice and offer premium/higher-priced products to encourage customers to spend more.

Example: ABCoffee offers specials that allow regular customers to add free bags to orders over a certain size. They occasionally slip in samples of new roast, hoping to whet the customer’s appetite to carry more varieties. They host “cuppings” for coffee shop owners to do tastings of their coffee blends, and offer special pricing for orders placed at these events.

Increase the Number of Times a Customer Buys from You

You can also grow your business by increasing customer loyalty and encouraging repeat purchases. To measure this, look at your purchase frequency metrics. Have customers been buying from you more frequently this year? If not, consider implementing a loyalty program or offering discounts to encourage repeat purchases. Make it a desirable thing to be a regular customer.

Example: ABCoffee implements a wholesale customer subscription program that provides a 10% discount to customers that sign up for their automatic monthly delivery service, thereby increasing the frequency of orders (with the bonus of providing reliable and predictable orders to their fulfillment center, increasing efficiency.

By evaluating your metrics for each of these areas of potential growth, you can identify where your business is thriving and where there’s room for improvement. (There’s always room for improvement.) Maybe you’ve been focusing on customer acquisition when your efforts would be better applied to increasing customer spend or loyalty.

Remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to growing a business. Find out what works for your specific business and customer base. By concentrating on these three key areas and monitoring your metrics, you can make data-driven decisions to drive growth and achieve your business goals.

Posted on Monday,

Avoid Waste, Improve Profit

Today’s business environment is competitive. Companies are constantly looking for ways to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and increase profitability. One way to achieve these goals is to implement lean accounting practices, which help businesses identify and eliminate waste in their processes.

According to a study by the Lean Enterprise Institute, a nonprofit organization focused on promoting lean thinking and continuous improvement, a staggering 85% of all effort in business is wasted. 85%! This means that only 15% of a company’s efforts actually contribute to value creation. This waste can take many forms – wasted time, wasted resources, and wasted effort. In my CFO Services practice, I work with many business owners and SMB companies trying to get to the next level with revenue and profitability, and I agree with this finding – there is so much waste, particularly in two areas: employee time, and reworking.

Employee Time
One of the first questions I ask in my initial business assessment process is to review the employee census and ask

“What do each of these individuals actually do?”

“What is their value to the customer? The development and creation of the product? The efficiency of the operation?

One of the largest areas of waste is time. Employees spend a lot of time on activities that don’t add value to the business. These include attending unnecessary meetings, responding to irrelevant emails, not automating processes, or engaging in non-work-related activities during work hours.

This not only decreases productivity but also can dramatically increase labor costs. To implement lean accounting principles in this situation:

Evaluate your meetings and determine who should attend them. Can some attend only once per month? Or stay for only a portion of the meeting?
Encourage employees to unsubscribe ruthlessly to emails they don’t need. Consider using fewer “all staff” distribution lists in favor of tighter lists that apply to specific projects.
Train employees to welcome automation, not fear it. Be open to their input about what tasks could be handled better with improved technology, or eliminated altogether.
Build a culture where people aren’t afraid to occasionally connect casually or do something “non-work-related” during work hours as a way to strengthen team bonds. But also have a culture that expects dedication and excellence. This isn’t accomplished as well by policing as it is by providing ways for people to feel human while at work, and celebrating wins to which everyone contributes.

Reworking

Another area of waste is reworking. This is when products, services, or backroom processes are not performed correctly the first time, resulting in the need to apply additional work, resources, and time to fixing the problem. This increases costs and often decreases customer satisfaction.

Fixing issues like this is like fixing a leak in a utility closet. Cleaning up the water is not enough to solve the problem. Identify the root cause of the leak (i.e. faulty faucet) and turn off the water. Don’t address only the symptoms. Find the underlying cause and work on it, first.

For example, is the process unclear? Are steps being skipped? Standardize the procedures, and write them down. Follow the example of “pre-flight checklists” that are used in various industries. Using checklists will help your staff build muscle memory for the process, but also keep them accountable, and help get them back on track if distracted. This also helps in training new people, and teaching your current employees how to identify and prevent quality issues themselves and with their coworkers.

Lean accounting is an approach that focuses on providing accurate and timely financial information that is relevant to the decision-making process. It emphasizes the importance of waste reduction and continuous improvement, which helps businesses increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve profitability. It should be a critical component of any business strategy, especially for small and medium-sized businesses struggling with cash flow and profitability. Put it into practice in all your business operations, and see how the bottom line, and your culture, can improve.

Contact me to help you implement lean accounting practices into your business.