Tag Archives: expenses

Survival Strategies , , Leave a comment

Mind Your Budget

by

As you brainstorm survival strategies for yourself and your business, creating a budget may be a good item for the to-do list.  A good budget can help you manage costs, understand where your profit centers are (and are not) and most of all,  let you know if you’re really making money and if so, how much.

For Freelancers, the temptation is to simply add up the 1099s at the end of a quarter or year and assume that tells the story. Yet there are always costs of doing business and it is very important that we know where, how and for what purpose we are spending our money.

Do you really need to rent office space?  Is it necessary for clients to visit your office, or might it be perfectly acceptable for you to go to them?  What is the ROI on the networking events that you attend?  Be strategic and selective about the rooms you pay to enter and go to events where you get the most bang for the bucks.

After you’ve been a few times and met a few people, try cutting back to bi-monthly or even quarterly appearances.  If you want to keep in touch with colleagues in between, invite them for a coffee.

Tally your gross revenues and cast a cold eye on expenses. These are the foundation of any budget for any business, or household for that matter.  Managing expenses has a huge impact on the bottom line.  It is possible to lose money overall even if sales are strong, because you either spent too much (money or time) to make the sale or overspent on other operating and production costs.

So if you make and sell jewelry, for example, watch how you buy the raw materials.   Do you have the best available sources?  Should you buy more and stockpile inventory in order to get a better price? Pay attention to market fluctuations and buy big when prices drop.   Managing the cost of goods sold adds to your profit margin.

On the expenses side, be sure to divide fixed expenses (rent, salaries, utilities, long term payment obligations, etc.) from variable expenses (sales commissions, advertising, travel, etc.).  Make note of seasonal fluctuations.  Does business slow down in July and August—or pick up? Identify where you can trim expenses or negotiate a better deal.

Once you’ve figured out the money coming in and money going out over the past 2 or 3 years and assessed where you are,  you can then decide what financial targets you’d like to reach.   Maybe you want a certain overall profit margin on goods sold, or perhaps you’d like to have average net quarterly earnings of a certain amount?

While you’re analyzing gross revenue,  you may even discover that spending a little money will make it possible for you to make much more.  For instance, hiring an assistant at $18/hour to answer the phone,  send invoices,  deposit checks,  post transactions into a ledger or help make jewelry in preparation for Christmas or Valentine’s Day can give you more time to network,  prospect,  make sales calls or double your output of jewelry available for sale.

Especially for Freelancers and other sole proprietors,  how you spend your time can be factored into the budgeting process.  Digging into your company finances may just turn up some buried treasure.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kim

Business Plan , , , Leave a comment

Starting A Business? Consider Your Financials Part II

by

Learning to create the financial documents for your business  is a worthwhile endeavor.  Make yourself do it! You will gain a significant understanding of your business.  You will learn the art of financial analysis.

Retaining a bookkeeper and accountant to produce the monthly statements and prepare the taxes is not enough.   In most cases, they don’t know your business well enough to make important decisions.  They can tell you when to cut expenses, but they lack the hands-on overview that effective decision making requires.

That responsibility (and privilege) is yours alone.  Little by little, even those who may be intimidated by numbers can become comfortable with the process.  Every business owner is the company CFO.

THE PROFIT & LOSS (INCOME) STATEMENT

This statement demonstrates whether or not the business is making money.  It will be useful to generate  a P & L statement every month, to chart your progress and help you pay attention to what the numbers are telling you.  It is an excellent analytical and decision making tool.

Many entries from the Cash Flow statement will also be listed in the  P & L:  sales revenue generated from each product and service;  variable selling expenses such as raw materials, labor, equipment rental and advertising;  and fixed costs such as rent, office staff salaries and utilities.  When you’re financially able to do so the owner’s draw,  i.e. what you pay yourself, will be listed here as a fixed expense.

At the top of this statement, enter gross revenues (sales). There are also lines for beginning and ending inventory and cost of goods sold.  Subtract COGS from gross revenues to reveal the gross profit.

Fixed and variable  expenses are tallied and subtracted from gross profit earnings to give you the EBIT: earnings before interest and taxes.  Loan interest payments and all taxes are then entered and subtracted also, to reveal in the bottom line of the statement the net profit or loss.

THE BALANCE SHEET

The Balance Sheet shows the financial picture of your business on a particular date.  It demonstrates what the business owns and owes on a given date, usually at the end of the fiscal (or calendar) year.

The Balance Sheet is divided into 3 categories:  Assets,  Liabilities and Net Worth (owner’s equity).  All business assets such as cash in the bank,  equipment owned,  inventory, property owned, office furniture and accounts receivable are considered assets and are entered in the plus column.

Business debts and obligations, e.g. loans and loan interest payments, accounts payable and taxes owed are entered into the minus column.  Net worth emerges when liabilities are subtracted from assets.

THE QUARTERLY BUDGET REVIEW

The Pro Forma Cash Flow statement, which provides a projection of what cash can reasonably be expected to flow into and out of your business in a given month (or quarter), should be validated by a Quarterly Budget Review.   Also called the Cash Flow Statement, this document gives the actual cash flow numbers for your business and is created after the fact.

Now you can compare your best guesses to reality.  Are you over or under budget? What has been over- or underestimated? Do you need to trim or stagger certain expenses in order to pay the bills every month? How accurate were your sales projections? Moreover, how much are you spending to make the sale?

Needless to say it will benefit you to trim expenses wherever practical and control COGS by locating the lowest cost wholesalers and raw materials sources, to free up cash so you can comfortably pay the bills each month,  pay down business debts and  perhaps  allocate money for useful promotional and advertising campaigns. You will also want to take that owner’s draw as soon as possible!

We’ll conclude the money portion next week with a look at what investors and lenders will also want to see.

Kim

Business Plan , Leave a comment

Starting A Business? Consider Your Financials Part I

by

So now we do the math. You will attach actual numbers to those sales projections, advertising strategies and monthly operating expenses. You will add up the items on your wish list and learn what you can and cannot afford to do.

You will see where adjustments must be made. You will develop a budget for the project,  devise a plan to finance it and greatly improve your chances of launching and sustaining a successful business. You will make your dream come true!

We’ll examine five financial documents:  Pro Forma Cash Flow;  Profit & Loss;  Balance Sheet;  Quarterly Budget Review and Break Even Analysis.  We’ll also take a look at the Financial Assumptions Summary and the Summary of Financial Needs, which are required for those who seek investors or a lender.

THE PRO FORMA CASH FLOW STATEMENT

This is the monthly (or quarterly) budget for the business.  If you run a household,  you already know how to do this.  The statement documents the expected ( projected) money that will flow into and out of your business. You as the entrepreneur will learn how much capital investment your business will need to keep the doors open and the products available for customers to purchase.  Investors and lenders will know if there is enough money to operate the business and if your business is worthy of a loan.

Accounts receivable are what customers owe you as payment for services provided by your business or payment for products sold.  Invoice= paycheck—with the important caveat that some customers will not pay you on time and a few will not pay you at all.  Accounts payable are the bills the business must pay each month.

At the risk of sounding painfully obvious, make sure that you have a very good chance of bringing in enough money each month to cover the bills, at least after doing business for 18-24 months.  Maybe this means you can’t give up your day job just yet.

If your day job is gone, then expect to dip into savings or convince friends and family to help you float the venture.  I will caution you that when it comes to friends and family, money can change the relationship, sometimes not for the better.

Refer to your marketing plan before you begin the cash flow statement.  Look at your advertising calendar and your desired ad campaigns, products that must be shipped, required travel to see clients, etc.  Determine the selling, or variable,  expenses.  These change whenever sales volume increases or decreases.

Labor is a variable expense, as it is tied to the production of what will be sold.  If you plan to open a restaurant and hire a chef, that employee is labor since he/she produces  the product.

Get a firm grip on your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), meaning the wholesale price or the cost of raw materials needed to produce your product.  An intangible product or service also has a COGS— time and talent.  Knowing COGS helps you determine a mark-up, or profit margin, that guides your pricing strategy.  The objective is to not only cover production costs but also to generate money to sustain business operating costs and you as well.  COGS impacts pricing, which impacts  sales projections.

Fixed expenses are administrative.  They don’t change much month to month.  Rent, utilities, insurance, office supplies and wages to non-production employees (e.g. the sommelier at your restaurant) fall into this category.

New businesses producing the first few months of Pro Forma Cash Flow statements will be documenting start up costs.  If start up costs are too heavy, trim or stagger expenses wherever practical.

Quarterly tax payments,  loan payments,  loan money received and planned inventory purchases  are also documented in Pro Forma Cash Flow.  In other words, whatever you expect to spend that month and whatever you expect to sell that month,  document in this statement.

At the bottom of Pro Forma Cash Flow there is a line called Ending Cash Balance. Your mission is to have that number be positive and greater than zero.

If the numbers show that expenses will be very heavy,  do not even think about increasing your sales projections to disguise a cash shortfall! Unfortunately,  many entrepreneurs inflate projected sales revenue.  That practice will take you straight to cash flow hell when the projected accounts receivable do not materialize.  I can assure you that the accounts payable will materialize.

Your best option is to dial back on certain costs.  Consider less glamorous product packaging,  lower cost advertising,  lowering the COGS by finding another source or using less costly raw materials, or renting cheaper office space.

Nest week, we’ll examine the P & L and the Balance Sheet.

Kim