10 Steps to Taking Control of Your Business...Step #3

Some time ago we wrote an EBook ’10 Steps to Taking Control of Your Business’…

The purpose of the book was to help business owners just like you to ‘Take Control’ of the many functions within their business…

To ‘Take Control’ of their thinking which is the real game changer…

Growing a business can be hard work and along the way, you will meet many challenges…

Some minor, some major...

Step #1... Have the right mindset with you here's the link if you missed it.

Step #2... Set targets.

Today is Step#3... Build a Meaningful Budget

You can’t make effective decisions about employing staff, buying equipment, investing in marketing, and how hard to ‘push’ for new customers without an effective budget.

An effective budget is one that forecasts your income, expenses, and other outgoings with a reasonable degree of accuracy.

It’s not perfect and it won’t keep your accountant (or the tax man) happy but it will allow you to sleep more soundly, knowing that you can ‘afford’ that next employee, or cover the repayments on your new car.

A good budget will also allow you to track your progress on your chosen path to results.

Of course, the budget isn't worth the paper it's written on if it's not a living document.

I use a budget common-size budget.

Common-size means that each line of the budget is expressed as a percentage of the turnover.

I discovered this back in my hospitality days which meant that every month I could see my wages as a % of sales, my food purchases as a % of sales, my liquor purchases as a % of sales, and so on.

Having this information is invaluable to every business, it means you can adjust your outgoings on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis so you are guaranteed you reach your profit target.

I like to combine a budget for the year with a 13-week rolling cash flow.

By comparing monthly actuals versus your predicted outcomes, you can make timely corrections to your course, so unlike many business owners, you don’t go a whole year before finding out from your accountant that you either had a good year…or not so!

If you're not sure how to put a budget together speak to your accountant or give me a shout remember I'm here to help ??

P.S. Can’t wait to read all 10 Steps, drop me an email at?[email protected]?and I’ll send you the full EBook…