Monthly Archives: February 2015

Are you as financially savvy as you need to be?

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Jenny teaching

As business owners we need our businesses to make money.

In my opinion an established business which does not pay its owner(s) a decent wage is really a hobby. So given that we need our businesses to make money it follows that we need to be sufficiently au fe with business finances to understand if our business is running our finances, or whether we our running our business finances.

Unfortunately, a large numbers of business owners are not financially savvy enough.

If you would like to see if you are one of these, try answering the questions below:

Do you have a clear financial plan?
Do you know if your business is currently profitable?
At this point do you know how much money is in your bank and what money you can expect in and out of your bank account over the next month?
Do you know what customers/products/services are profitable?
Do you have a robust invoicing and debt collection system so clients pay you in a reasonable time (do you know what reasonable is?)?
Are you always able to pay your suppliers on time?
Can you always pay your salary/dividend/drawings?
Do you know how much you have to sell, and at what price, to provide the lifestyle you want?
If the answer to two or more of these questions is “no” you are probably not as financially savvy as you need to be to run your business effectively.

However, help is at hand and there are ways you can help yourself.

If you have an accountant/bookkeeper ask them questions about your financial position and what you could do to improve it
Talk to your business friends who seem to be financially sorted and ask them what they do
There are volumes of business books out there that can help you understand the basics
Take time to properly plan
You may want to go on a finance for non-financial managers course to learn the basics in a workshop setting.
Finally, I have written a series of FREE financial and business guides which you can download from my website http://www.fionabevanfinancialmanagement.co.uk/guides.php

You can download as many or as few of the guides as you like without registering so please do take advantage of them.

Fiona 🙂

Help is on your side!

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guides

Since starting my business 8 years ago I have been very lucky to have been surrounded by a network of great people who have given me help and advice, helping me develop my company in the best way for me.

Much of this advice has been freely given, without any thought of direct benefit to the adviser – most of the advisers believing in the mantra ‘what goes around, comes around’.

I believe this too.

If you treat people as you would wish to be treated you can’t go wrong. Further, it is those people who give most freely of their time and energy who have the most successful businesses – not just in terms of money but also in terms of the enjoyment and satisfaction they find in their business life.

Of course, you have to make a living and it does not do to give away the crown jewels for free if they are your source of income. However, there may be people who will never become clients, who can be assisted along their journey.

Three years ago I wrote some guides covering key topics relating to business finance and planning. They are designed to help owners of small (and also larger) businesses to get on top of issues which give them sleepless nights, or which are holding their businesses back.

Excitingly I have recently had the opportunity to do some radio interviews based on the guides and these can also be downloaded and listened to at your leisure.

These guides are my way of giving back so if you are interested in downloading them go to: http://www.fionabevanfinancialmanagement.co.uk/guides.php

You do not need to register with me to down load the guides and they really are free.

Enjoy!

Fiona 🙂