1.        Have a business Plan – every year

Elements of a Business Plan include:

MISSION STATEMENT – use it to guide your decision making.  As a business owner or manager, you face numerous decisions every day.  Ask yourself when making decision about the business, assets, money, staff - Does this align with the mission statement.

VISION STATEMENT – when  investing time, money, resources, ask if the investment will get you to the long term ambition of the company. 

BUDGET – keep it real.  Do your research on actual costs and realistic revenues and margins.  You will want to report against it monthly.

Business Managers – all still important.  Find out what your company Mission and Vision statements are.  How  can your business unit support those company goals.  As a business manager know your budget – ask for it.  You may also create your business unit budget.  Look at past budgets and again keep it real.   

2.      Cash – Working Capital

Unfortunately, the reality is money goes out before it comes in.  Businesses pay for payroll, rent, supplies, and inventory to create or sell before any seeing any revenue.  Some companies give customers sale on credit, which means the money comes in even later.    Here are some sources of working capital.

Most Traditional Banks do not provide SME with working capital loans.  You can try your exiting personal bank, but don’t be surprised if you receive a no.  Some non traditional banks are listed below:

Business Development Bank of Canada - https://www.bdc.ca/en

Export Development Bank - https://www.edc.ca/

Government small business loans - Canada-small-business-financing-program/en

Accelerate Okanagan | Technology Business Accelerator

You may need all these sources to start. Investors and banks usually wants to see you have put your own money on the table, or some other source before they put money on the table.  Good thing you have a solid business plan!

Business Manager – Same applies – know the company sources of working capital – your growing successful business unit will need it.  Does the company have loans, investors or personal guarantees?

3. Hire an experienced bookkeeper or bookkeeping/accounting service

You are not an accountant, unless you are.  But if you are not an accountant, then hire one.  Hire an experienced bookkeeper or contract service and USE them.  If you do not keep track of your numbers, pay your bills on time, or have enough product – you will not be successful.

Whether you hire someone in house or use a contract service, keep control of your accounting.  Ensure you have access to your books or software.  It is all on the cloud now, so you should have a login.  Don’t just give them a shoebox full of papers and hope for the best.  Get them to show you a bit of how to use the system.   Meet with your bookkeeper/account daily, weekly, at a minimum monthly.  KNOW YOUR NUMBERS.  How do you know your numbers – get reports.

 All accounting software has reporting capabilities.  Ask for reports, ask what kind of reports the system generates.  At a minimum ask for reports monthly.  Month end is a common reporting period.  If your bookkeeper or service does not want to provide all the above – then find a different one.  As time goes on you will become more knowledgeable and comfortable with the numbers.

Business Managers – still applies, you may not hire the bookkeeper, but the business has one.  Get to know your accounting department, and use them as a resource

4. Know your Customers

   
   

Whether you are selling jewelry at a farmers market or producing computer parts, KNOW your CUSTOMERS and have their information.  Use some kind of customer resource manager (CRM) to keep all the information or data.  ASK for it when selling.  Your accounting system is a good place to start as your accountant has to track all the money in.  Then you can ask for a sales report weekly!

You can then leverage those past sales for more sales and marketing.

Business Manager – Critical function.  Get comfortable with asking Customers for their information, using the business CRM, and asking or generating reports.

5. Hire the right people

Hire the right people, then train, support, communicate – best ROI you will ever get.  The cost of staff turnover is so high  in downtime, lost knowledge, and costs of hiring.  I know it takes time away from managing your business, building, serving, creating – but you cannot do it alone.  A mantra of very successful Entrepreneurs is “ always hire people smarter than me” .

Business Managers – Critical function – training and supporting your people, can be the difference between a successful or an unsuccessful business Unit.  That support can lead to more sales, your bonus or promotion.  If you have an HR department – USE them as a resource.

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