This morning I met with the owner of Hamilton Bookkeeping to review my accounting system and make sure everything is all set for the end of the year for my business. The peace of mind I get from having someone who is versed in the program I use for my accounting [Quickbooks] to review my work helps me to have more time for my clients, a clearer picture of the bottom line for my business and keeps me focused on reaching my long-term business goals. If you are like most small businesses, you probably have tried to do your own accounting. This is great if you are a numbers person, but if your strength is in another area then hiring a professional is highly recommended.
Knowing your numbers can help you to drive sales and achieve sales goals. If you are not up to date with knowing what you are doing for sales each week, how can you project a sales goal for the month, quarter and year? Long-term growth of your business is accelerated when you are on top your business. Knowing if you need to do an advertising campaign to stimulate sales or when to hire more sales help can only be determined if your accounting is accurate. When you start your day, do you know how many products you need to sell or service hours you need to bill out to cover the expenses of your business? If you do not know this information it is like jumping in your car and knowing you need to get to a client’s office, but you have no address or directions. We all want to be successful in our businesses, but without strategy and having a profit & loss statement do you honestly see your business thriving in today’s market?
When Purple Diamond takes on a client for television advertising the first question I ask is what the client has allocated in their budget for the ad campaign. Having a “real” number helps me to help them be successful. There is nothing worse than finding out after your have produced the TV commercial that the client doesn’t have money to air the spot. Yes, they can now put that commercial on their website, but had they known their actual budget for marketing they might have chosen to spend that money they used for the TV production in another area like Google Ad Words or an email newsletter campaign.
Whether your business is thriving or barely keeping the lights on, take the time to get your books in order and call in a professional if you need help. Success requires goal setting and assessment of your progress.
All my best to your success!
~Charlene
