Just as you use a map on a driving holiday to get to your next destination, you need a road map for your finances so you can figure out where you’re heading and how you’ll get there. You also need to look back and see whether you had any bumps on your journey, so you can avoid them moving forward.

The most successful business owners will spend the next month tweaking their business to suit the environment and preparing their finances for the success that will follow. Whether you have profit goals, want to hire an employee or go on a holiday, consider these simple steps to ensure you arrive at your financial destination refreshed and relaxed.

Share your values

Communicating the vision and values of your business is a great way to get buy-in from your team and make sure everyone is working toward the same goals. Consider sharing your vision and values regularly, using real examples and simple language, so everyone understands the purpose of your business.

Have a roadmap

Do you have a strategy to drive your business?  A two-page business plan will help you articulate what you need to do in your business so you can drive it towards success. There is government funding available to help you create a strategic plan—feel free to get in touch for further information.

Build strong foundations

Your business needs a strong foundation to ensure it remains stable and sustainable. Consider assessing the structure of your business to make sure you can protect your assets, reduce your tax and allocate profits in the most effective way. You may also like to run monthly board meetings with experienced business advisors that can support your business with professional advice.

Develop a positive culture

The culture of a business can have a big impact on its performance. Look at the atmosphere and attitude of your office environment. Is it happy and productive, or anxious and idle? What can you do to motivate your team and inspire them to succeed?

Assess your products and services

Have you looked at your financials to see which products and services are making you money and which have become unprofitable? Consider ditching unprofitable products and services, or package them together to improve the average value of each sale.

Increase prices

When was the last time you had a price increase? Each year your costs are likely to increase due to inflation, so consider increasing your prices annually to ensure you maintain profitability.

Grow your sales

There are three ways to grow sales: increase the number of customers you have; increase your average sale; or increase how often your customers buy from you. To make sure each sale is profitable, look at how you are going to address each of these areas. Don’t forget your debtors—the sale isn’t complete unless it’s paid for!

Focus on people

As a business owner, if you aren’t supported by your team, you will continue to be drawn back into the day-to-day aspects of business and will not be able to work ‘on’ your business to grow sales. With unemployment at a historic low, it’s never been more important to get the right people into the right positions in your business.

Get organised

Do you know how much you need to earn to keep the doors open each day? Do you understand your debtor days, creditor days and stock turns? Do you know how much cash is ‘locked-up’ in your business? A financially well-organised business helps you to build profit and reduce tax, so you can feel confident in your financial future.

Improve efficiency

Look at your systems and processes and see where you may be able to make improvements moving forward. From answering the phone and dealing with enquiries and quotes, to billing and following-up invoices, implementing consistent processes will help your business run as efficient as possible.

What do you think? Have you started tweaking your business to make the most of the new financial year?

To make sure your business enjoys a smooth journey ahead, contact Jeni Wilcock from Sullivan Dewing on 02 9526 1211.