The Profit Map – Financials

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Hi, this is Judi Otton with GrowthCast and I’m here with your latest Fiscal Fitness Tip of the Week and we are going to continue our series on The Profit Map. The Profit Map is my diagnostic tool that I use with every client that I begin working with. Today we’re going to talk about Financials we’re on letter F for financials so I’m going to give you a few things to consider when evaluating your own business’s health. First of all, are you getting regular financial statements? And by regular, I mean at least monthly. And when we talk about financial statements, I think most of you are getting P & L’s, or income statements, but are you also seeing a balance sheet and the cash flow statement? If you’re not, let’s dig into why not, and let me show you what you should be looking at on all of those statements. Second, are you up to date with all your tax responsibilities? This means both income and sales tax on a federal, state, and if applicable, local level. If you’re not obviously it’s not ideal, but let’s talk. I mean I’ve heard it all before. We can make this better . Third, do you have a cash flow forecast? Do you know what your cash needs are coming up ideally for the next, I usually do them 13 weeks, which is a quarter. This is really important. Separate from your profitability and separate from a budget. This is very important if you have any debt that isn’t going to show up on your P&L, or your budget or if you’re A/R your accounts receivable is slow or inconsistent. And finally, are you setting money aside for quarterly tax contributions, capital expenditures, both new equipment and repair maintenance to your existing equipment as well as a rainy day fund. Just like in our home finances, we need to have an emergency fund for our businesses. This was your latest installment of the Profit Map series. And if you like this, check out my playlist with the other Profit Map, Profit Map entries. This is Judi Otton GrowthCast with your latest Fiscal Fitness Tip of the Week and I’ll be back next week.