Wooo hooo – Happy New Financial Year!!! It’s time to review, reset and plan for the New Year ahead. If the last year was a struggle and left you feeling relatively crap then now’s the time to draw a line in the sand, make the decision to take control of your business and put a plan in place to make more money, have more time and stress less.
What better way to start the New Year than with determination and a plan to kick arse and here’s how you can go about doing so:
Review Last Year The best place to start is to review the financial performance of your business last year:
• How much did you make in sales, how much were your expenses and what was left over (your profit)?
• How much money did you pay yourself either from a wage or drawings?
• What were the best selling products/services and which had the best profit margin?
• Review your expenses. What were your largest expenses and what expenses can you cut down on? For example are there subscriptions you can reduce or opt-out of?
• How much time did you spend working in your business? Was the time you spent productive and did you manage your time well?
• How organized were you around keeping your accounts up to date, having enough to pay your GST/PAYG/Superannuation, invoicing out on time, collecting money from your sales and paying your bills?
Set Goals For this Year Now you can start with a clean slate. I suggest that you are specific about your financial goals, for example, rather than saying I want to make more money, write down a dollar figure.
• Choose how much money you want to make in sales this year (dollar figure) and then work out how many specific products/services you must sell to reach this amount. Look back at the last year’s best selling products/services and the ones with the greatest profit margins.
• Decide how much money you want to be paid and whether you want to receive a wage or take regular drawings out of the business.
• Review your expenses and select which ones you are going to cut out or reduce.
• Set up a simple budget forecast (sounds scary but it’s not – I promise!) and play around with your sales and expenses to see what you have to do to make a profit. You could also monitor your budget throughout the year and measure how you are actually going against what you initially budgeted for.
• Often when setting goals for our business we focus just on the financial or operational goals however it’s important to include how you want to feel this year. Do you want to feel in control, empowered, successful,organized or motivated? The aim is to be specific and look at how you can run your business so you are able to feel this way. If you want to feel in control, for example, this may mean not only of your finances but also of your time so you may need to consider looking at improving the systems and processes in your business.
Maintaining Momentum
This can sometimes be the tricky part but persisting with sticking to your vision and goals will pay off! What changes do you have to make to ensure you maintain momentum and stick to your goals?
• Keeping your accounts up to date and accurate will help you keep track of your financial goals and setting aside a day per week (or even half a day) to work on your business will enable you to see the big picture, stick to your vision and not get lost in the daily to do’s. You may need to get to bed earlier and start the day earlier or block out distractions during part of the day so you are more productive.
• Having clarity about the vision you have for your business and ultimately the lifestyle you want your business to provide is a massive motivator to stick to your goals. Whether you write your vision down or create a vision board this will help with maintaining your momentum, which is particularly handy if you get sidetracked or challenged.
• Invest in a coach or mentor to help keep you accountable. If finances are a bit tight then consider pairing up with someone else who needs an accountability structure and work together to support each other.
Marisa Punshon is a Money Mentor and Cash Flow Consultant. She helps peope increase their cash and gain control of their finances so they can grow their personal wealth and do what they love to do. She is a Vision Partner for The Entourage, 2016 and a Mnd PT Consultant. www.partner2grow.com
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