As an entrepreneur or manager, you, no doubt, have a strong working knowledge and expertise of your product or service. But, that’s only one piece of the business puzzle. You cannot be expected to, nor can you expect yourself to know all the “pieces” that must come together to manage and grow a successful business.

When you start a business you assemble a few puzzle pieces independently or with help. First, there’s the product or service you’ll offer. Then, the next piece might be location, plant and/or equipment. Next you will pick up the suppliers piece so that you have materials to meet demand. You may begin working on the puzzle alone or you may hire help. This is a very important piece because you may have to learn how to manage someone else and you have to assemble all the supportive pieces… compensation, payroll and payroll taxes, workmen’s compensation and maybe even the benefits piece.

As the business puzzle gets larger, the pieces get more complex. Pieces that you thought were right no longer fit. You spend more and more time in reassembly mode, trying to keep it all together. Personal time and family time may go by the wayside as the puzzle consumes you.

When you started your puzzle, you thought you would be in control… your own boss. Instead, eventually you cannot tell where you end and the puzzle begins.

You need a master puzzle solver. Depending on how disconnected the pieces have become, you may even need a team of professional puzzle solvers, each with an ability to work on a different section of the puzzle. You may need help with the sales and marketing piece to grow your top line… or the human resources piece may be difficult to control… or the accounting piece may not add up… or the logistics piece may not deliver.

Business owners often have difficulty with the cash flow piece. Others can’t decide how to assemble the business structure pieces because they’ve received conflicting advice.

When assembling your business puzzle, many difficult decisions as to the best fit are made quickly, often by gut instinct without the benefit of research or hard numbers to back up those decisions. It’s like being blindfolded when solving the puzzle. This can be especially scary… as guessing your way out of a problem rarely works.

Finally, in these demanding times with a faltering economy and rapid technological change, competition will try to steal your business pieces. They may target your customers piece or your trained personnel piece or your technology piece.

Realize this: you are not alone. Many others facing the same demands have received answers, assistance and resolution from the master puzzle builders at EFX. We can help!

Top 10 common missing puzzle pieces in a Management Accounting System:

1. The life’s blood of any business is Cash Flow! Do you have a complete CASH MANAGEMENT SYSTEM? Why not? Having cracks in your cash flow system is the easiest way to lose profit!
2. Are your Billing and Collection systems up-to-date and do you use current technology to its fullest advantage?
3. What is your credit policy? Should it be reviewed and updated?
4. Do you frequently review your accounts receivable and accounts payable aging reports?
5. Is your debt load excessive or do you lack the ability to get credit?
6. Do you use budgets properly? How often are they reviewed and do you know how to manage your expenses to budget in order to assure a guaranteed profit for your business (Profit Trending)?
7. Have you set up a system utilizing a breakeven analysis to manage your costs and set pricing to PROFIT?
8. Are your General Accounting procedures set up properly, or does everything just go in the shoebox?
9. How do you manage your inventory, waste, purchasing, idle time, scrap rate, or wrk-in-progress?
10. Do you job-cost, matching actual costs against standard costs? How do you determine standard costs?

Are you always chasing that elusive PROFIT PUZZLE PIECE?

THE PROFITABLE FEW :

Contact us for a FREE QuickBooks Application Analysis.

Top 10 common missing puzzle pieces in a HR Management System:

1. Does your Business Plan help build your business team? When did last update your Business Plan and analyze your business model? The world is always changing around us, so we must stay ahead of the game by periodically reinventing our approaches.
2. Do you have a company Policy and Procedure Manuel (SOP)? Is it designed to hold your staff accountable for their performance? CAN YOU EVALUATE OR MEASURE THEIR PERFORMANCE IN A DEFINED WAY WITHOUT WATCHING THEIR EVERY MOVE? Are you they running the show or are you they?
3. Are you receiving the return on your labor investment (ROI) that you should? If labor is your biggest expense, what kind of return are you getting on it? Have you ever done a Productivity Analysis of your business?
4. How effectively do you manage the administrative personnel in your company? We’ve heard hundreds of stories of how business owners have been “taken to the cleaners” by untrustworthy office managers and bookkeepers.
5. Do you stay on top of all the information that is relevant to your marketplace, industry, products, new equipment, regulations and taxes?
6. What are you doing to maintain a positive company culture and develop a team-oriented mentality? Do you have a proactive incentive program in place?
7. How did you determine your company structure and have you ever considered changing it?
8. Do you have any Statistical Reporting System in place, or have you developed a benchmarking approach to track the growth of your business?
9. Have you established a system to effectively schedule, execute, monitor and follow-through?
10. HOW DO YOU MANAGE YOURSELF? Do you have a time management system? While people are a business’s most significant asset, the decision makers are the most important people.

You may not think of your management style as a system, but, believe us, it is. If it lacks consistency, you are creating a potentially negative environment in your business. A system that is consistent, fair and structured with a degree of flexibility is exactly what you need. Otherwise, you will be constantly reinventing yourself and confusing everyone around you.

Contact us for a FREE Productivity Analysis or Occupational Behavioral Study.

Top 11 common missing puzzle pieces in a Sales and Marketing Program:

1. When did you last update your Sales and Marketing plan? The marketplace has changed so must your approach to it.
2. When did you last review your advertising budget? Is this the time to increase it or decrease it?
3. When did you last perform a strategic analysis of your competition? It is always important to know the strengths and weaknesses of your competition. No one stops doing business with your competitor based on what they do well. Make the competition’s weakness your strength.
4. How often do you review your pricing structure? Is it too flexible or is it too rigid? Have you ever had a financial analysis of your pricing structure done? Do you price to sell or price for profit? Is there a margin-mix management program in place?
5. Do you have anyone who is totally dedicated to growing your sales? How do you monitor their performance, set goals/quotas, create leads or compensate them.
6. What is your market penetration, market coverage and market reach? Is there a niche you are missing? Have you done enough or any research to answer these questions?
7. Have you or anyone on your staff ever had in-house or formal sales training?
8. The internet is the new yellow pages. How are you maximizing this very important resource? Are you taking advantage of the social networking sites? Would you like a FREE website analysis? If you don’t have a site is it because you lack the knowledge or time?
9. Is the marketplace shrinking for you daily? What solutions have you come up with? Have they worked? If not, why?
10. Have you looked closely at a product/service diversification program for your business?
11. Do your office and supply chain vendors communicate well? If not what are you doing about it?