Planning for Christmas? Make Sure Your Business is in Good Shape for 2010

Whilst it may seem unwelcome to talk about Christmas so soon after the summer holidays have ended, we all know that the end of the year will be on us before we know it. For many business owners 2009 will not be a year they will want to repeat. In the words of our Queen, it will have been an annus horribilis for many. As many businesses will have had to make some significant changes in their businesses this year, now is the time to reflect on these and see what you have missed whilst trying to stabilise your business in preparation for moving forward in 2010. We asked Colin Mills at The FD Centre, who provide part-time FDs to small and medium sized businesses and who have been doing a lot of 'stabilising' work this year, to provide a quick checklist.

• The best businesses know exactly where they stand. Does your financial reporting provide you with an accurate view of the financial performance of your business within a short period from each month end? These should contain: 1. historic balance sheet, profit and loss and cashflow together with key performance indicators that management use to run the business on a day to day basis; 2. Rolling forecast balance sheet, profit and loss and cashflow driven by the same key performance indicators.
  
  
• Have you analysed all of your products or service offerings and identified those that should be invested in and those which should be scaled back to improve the performance of the business?
  
  
• Have you reviewed all of your costs and identified all of those costs where alternative suppliers can be identified and current deals can be negotiated? This helps to minimise your cost base and refine your negotiation skills.
  
  
• Have you reviewed all of your customers and identified the good ones from the bad ones, ie. those that take ages to pay, etc? Use those negotiation skills to make the most from your customers.
  
  
• Have you assessed all of the obvious risks in your business and made sure that you have a contingency plan in place to avoid those with the highest likelihood and most significant impact?
  
  
• Do you have a clear operational plan for the future of the business broken down to show you the steps required to implement that plan?  If you do not have this it will be impossible to identify those opportunities that arise next year that fit your plan for the business.
  

Colin Mills comments, "most of our clients have been through this process this year. As a result many are now looking to exploit the opportunities to expand their markets and recruit key staff to help drive their businesses forward in 2010".

 

Entrepreneurial Vision - October 2009 - Contents Page