I often meet business owners that are doing great. They don’t need a budget. They have money in the bank, sales coming in and are growing at a nice pace, but are there dangers lurking ahead? Wouldn’t you rather know before they jump out of the closet and cause a commotion? I sure would!
Even if you don’t want more out of your business (and I’m not sure who doesn’t!) putting a budget in place and making sure you stay on track can avoid unpleasant surprises and identify landmines. Before you step on them!
What kinds of things could happen?
Clients
What changes are going on with your clients? Get out and talk to them. Understand what’s going on with their businesses. You’ll get a heads up if their volume is likely to fall off and who knows, you might even get some new ideas of ways to serve them
Vendors
Understand what’s going on with your materials, inventory, or other big expenses. Talk to your vendors. See what’s coming down the pike. Maybe you’ll even get some ideas on cost savings!
Waste
You may also find expenses that you don’t need anymore, or could be done better. Like that old print advertising campaign – maybe there’s a more effective way to allocate those funds!
Even though you may not have been looking to be even more financially successful, who would turn that down! Now take that extra profit and treat yourself, or your team. You all deserve it!
Growth
Which brings us to the positive side of having a budget – are you allocating your funds in the best possible way? Are you taking advantage of the opportunities coming your way and fulfilling your strategic goals? Without a budget in place, I often see business owners miss out.
If you want to grow your business, it takes cash, for more staff, more space, more inventory, marketing initiatives, and other investments. Trying to grow without a plan in place is a recipe for disaster. What if you hire too soon and don’t have the cash or credit for inventory, or expand into that big space and can’t get the word out to fill it? Growth is often pretty messy, but it doesn’t have to be quite so bad.
Lay out your plans – all of them and estimate the costs associated. IT will give you a good picture of the cash you’re going to need to realize those plans and allow you to make tradeoffs before you’ve committed cash to something that might not be your highest priority.
It’s not hard to create a budget and a process to track it. Contact me here. I can help.
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