Numbers Are Life

Do you know what revenue you need to generate this week to survive? By that I mean to cover all of your business costs and pay yourself? This is vital information you need to know to ensure you’re building a profitable business.

As a business owner, life can get so busy that unless you have your eye on the ball, costs can escalate. Before you know it you’re operating at a loss, totally unaware to the fact!

Are you lacking inspiration or enthusiasm for your business right now? It happens. Sometimes it can all feel like such a drudge that you wonder why you’re in business! It’s totally normal.

Some will say this feeling is leading to a breakdown of sorts, and once this occurs you can look forward to the breakthrough. I tend to believe this. Often running a business can become a drudge when we are totally overwhelmed, have too much to do and no one to help. It’s like a spiraling effect; there doesn’t seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel.

Have you lost your loops?

I’m a fan of the GTD (Getting Things Done) system; not a fanatic, but someone who sees the benefits of incorporating such a system into my life. Although, I will add if I was fanatical I probably wouldn’t get overwhelmed like I do occasionally.

If you’ve not heard of GTD, what rock have you been under? Seriously David Allen and his Getting Things Done system has been around for some time, and has an almost cult-like following. Try Googling GTD and you’ll see what I mean.

Some of us start our business with a particular purpose in mind – to solve someone’s problem, realise a brilliant idea or make money from a hobby. The way you begin doesn’t determine business performance, but can determine the stage of financial knowledge you are at.

There are five stages of business financial knowledge. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been in business for one, three or five years; you could be in any one of the five stages right now. And it’s up to you how long you stay in each stage.

Do you set goals only to feel frustrated and disappointed when they’re not met? This happened to me this quarter. I set some specific bold goals to really move my business forward and did not achieve them. All was not lost though; I achieved my financial goals – smashed them in fact.

But, I’m a bit of a doer, and to not achieve my goals left me feeling a little down on myself.  The reality is I wasn’t slacking off; after all I wouldn’t have achieved my financial goals if that was the case. But my attention was diverted to business foundation matters, resourcing up, establishing new clients and an opportunity that took up such a considerable amount of time that in the end I decided to let it go.

I often get asked, “What numbers should I be looking at?” My answer is always all of them, but for some that’s just too much. And dependent on your industry the answer can also differ. But really there is a first step that business owners need to make – and that is understanding the story [...]

My attention has been diverted away from my own business of late, three months in fact. I have been so busy with existing clients – and new clients coming on board – that I have neglected my own business.

I have long been a proponent of structuring your week for the various functions of your business. For me that’s client days on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, Wednesday is business development day and Fridays are my follow up and admin days. This system has worked well for not only me, but for clients and readers of my material.

Business professionals who provide a service, like accountants, fall into two camps – those who care about you as a client and those who care about the money.

That’s not to say you can’t care about both – of course a good business person must care about money – but it shouldn’t be the driving factor for why they work with you. I think you see a great distinction between those who care about their clients and those who care about their money.

So last week I took a break from my business appointments. And I really mean a break – I made sure nothing was scheduled and I concentrated solely on the systems in my business.

Yes there were still calls to answer, but I took myself away from my desk and set up either on my kitchen table or my local cafe, whichever took my fancy. My goals for my “systems break” were to get a better handle on our new project management system and revisit some processes in the business.