Stop Chasing The Wind

STOP CHASING THE WIND Don`t wait for more customers, maximise your business profits today! By Scott Richards ~~~ Smashwords Edition Copyright © 2013 by Scott Richards. All rights reserved. Smashwords Edition, License Notes This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. Disclaimer All information herein is educational and not advice. It is general information and has not taken into account your personal circumstances. Please seek independent financial advice regarding your own situation, or if in doubt about the suitability of an investment. The value of any investment and the income derived from it can go down as well as up. Never invest more than you can afford to lose and keep in mind the ultimate risk is that you can lose whatever you`ve invested. While useful for detecting patterns the past is not a guide to future performance. Some figures are forecasts and may not be a reliable indicator of future results. HYPOTHETICAL OR SIMULATED PERFORMANCE RESULTS HAVE CERTAIN LIMITATIONS. NO REPRESENTATION IS BEING MADE THAT ANY STRATEGY WILL OR IS LIKELY TO ACHIEVE PROFIT OR LOSSES. All rights reserved. This Document may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, in part or in whole, without explicit written permission of Knowledge to the authors except where permitted by law. Table of Contents Foreword Great Business, Poor Financial Controls -- Consider discounting -- What does financial management look like for the typical small business? Step 1: Develop a clear mission; build brand value through focus -- The elements of your mission: -- You don’t have a business; you have a brand -- Building brand equity -- Delivering on expectations, keeping promises Step 2: What are your Critical Numbers? -- Measuring the Only Really Important Thing – Your Return on Effort -- The lifetime value calculation -- A SWOT analysis Step 3: Systemise & Strategise -- The turnkey solution -- How do you build a business that works without you? -- What is Strategic Thinking? Step 4: Find Your Unique Competitive Advantage -- Looking at an online business: -- Find your unique competitive advantage -- Communicating your Competitive Advantage -- Scenario Step 5: Implement and Reflect -- What is working? What needs improvement? About Beyond the Numbers -- Small Business Financial Strategists Foreword Sunday morning is your favourite time of the week. Every Sunday you go down to your local coffee shop for breakfast and to read the paper. However, just as you are heading out the door the phone rings. You answer it. “Hi, I have just called to inform you that if you come down to Generous Joe’s shop within the next 30 minutes you could win $100. To win $100 all you have to do is roll the dice and roll a six. Are you interested?” What is response? Are you willing to give up breakfast to drive 30 minutes for the possibility of winning $100? My guess is that a few people would make the trip but most would continue with their breakfast plans. However, before you get out the door the phone rings again. “Come quick! One of your staff members says he is going to hand out $20 notes to the next five customers who come into the shop!” What is your response now? You go straight to Generous Joe’s shop to try and win the $100. Of course you don’t. You would go straight to your shop to save your money. You may think this scenario is a little absurd. However, this happens all the time in small business. A business will spend all their time chasing sales, while money is being given away from other areas of the business. They are on what I call the small business carousel: forever moving forward but never actually getting anywhere with many ups and downs. A business will have an excellent product or service but they don’t have the right strategies to hold onto the cash as it comes into the business. Many times the business owner does not even know why they are losing money and will continue to chase more sales to make more money. Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not against trying to increase sales. Marketing is extremely important and should be in everything you do in business. However, marketing with poor financial control is futile. It is like chasing the wind. This e-book is for those business owners who need to regain financial control of their business. They want to stop handing money out and start maximising their profit at the level they are at now. When the business has financial control increasing sales won’t like be chasing the wind but will be profitable and rewarding. This e-book outlines the process I used to help a business put strategies in place to maximise their profit. These strategies increased their profit by 560% from $32,000 to $211,000 in just twelve months. Unfortunately, there was no one silver bullet but a process of continual improvement. I continue to use a similar process when working with small businesses. If you would like to learn more about how I can help your business maximise its profit then please visit www.beyondthenumbers.com.au. All the best, Scott ... - tailieumienphi.vn