Outsourced CFO Support that grows your cash and your confidence

Hi Reader,

Is your summer over or just getting started? I'm always conflicted at this point in August because in the Seattle region the official summer weather just started, but we're also only a few weeks away from school starting. It's a confusing time for me. Thanks for listening.

Before we get to the blog this month, I want to share my themes I've been noticing where clients are getting stuck

Dips in revenue
Staying Focused
Hiring

Dips in Revenue

There's a BIG myth or assumption many business owners make (especially those with businesses under 10 years) and that is: revenue always goes up. Revenue goes up and down. Costs go up and down. Revenue will dip when your costs go up. It just happens. That business life. When owners start to expect this magic happens. We can work together to plan for cash when those dips and increased expenses come in so it's not an emergency.

Staying Focused

I love KPIs, but KPIs are hard when you don't have a main goal or you're constantly changing your goals. Often I see business owners *myself sometimes included in this!* get discouraged that their business aren't growing the way they expect but then we pull back the curtain and realize they're running in 10 directions with no goals. Goals help you focus on what's important. When you don't know what you want, you can't focus and all the work you did on KPIs ends up not mattering. So before you set a KPI, know your goal, then work towards one big goal and having supporting KPIs around it. Easier said that done, but it's worth the effort.

Hiring

Hiring seems (emphasis on this is not back in data) a bit off right now. Based on recently conversations I've had, corporations are a complete blood bath and small businesses can't find good talent (not true for everyone). Before you hire, know what the purpose of that hire is, then map our how that hire will drive revenue and what KPIs they will be associated with. This will save you a lot of headache down the road.

Financial confidence isn't about knowing everything - it's about knowing enough to make good decisions for YOUR business.

-Natalie

On the blog...

Sales Forecasting For Non-Numbers People: Easy Steps for Small Business Owners

Forecasting is intimidating to most people, even including accountants, tax advisors, and financial analysts. To get forecasts “correct” you need a significant amount of data and rarely does that data exist. Even in very large companies with significant data, forecasting is elusive.

So what do you do when you have a small business and want a robust revenue forecast?

In this article, I’m going to walk you through what kinds of forecasts matter, which ones to use for what purpose and how to simply think through a revenue forecast that isn’t daunting. By the end of reading this you should have a basic understanding of the next steps you can take to get super clear on your business’s revenue forecast.

Read the blog