So, now that we have added “Advisory” to our name, what does that actually mean?  Clients in our Full and Premium packages (I’m working on new names for these) will be getting 1 on 1 deep dive strategy sessions with me either quarterly or monthly, respectively.

So, what’s the point of having a strategy session when we already send out financial statements every month?  Well, my follow-up question would be – do you actually read those?  Do you really look at them and say “hmmm my payroll costs have gone way up?”  Do you look at your gross profit margin and think about how that affects your day to day business decisions?  Maybe you do and that’s great, but we see a whole lot of financial statements.  We have experience in a wide variety of industries, stages of business, and financial situations.  So, we have a unique perspective on finances and small business management.  We’re able to provide valuable insights and ask some of those questions that maybe you haven’t thought of before.

Typically, with our new clients, I go through a process of evaluating and adjusting their Chart of Accounts to something that will make more sense to the business owner.  We specialize in service businesses, but just because you are providing a service doesn’t mean we can’t use Cost of Goods Sold to track some of your major expenses.  I like to think of it as Cost of Services Sold.  Usually, this includes staff costs, merchant fees, and any other software or materials that you use to get that job done.  For me, that would be accounting software like QuickBooks and Keeper.  The whole point of this is to get a better Gross Profit number.  Sales are great, but if you are not accounting for your staff and major expenses you can run yourself out of business if you are selling more if your cost to perform the services is higher than the revenue generated.

Or maybe you have a couple different income streams – like recurring versus one-time jobs or design vs implementation.  It helps to track these separately, so you can see how well each individual stream of revenue is doing.  Maybe you’re not selling enough of Service C, so do you really need it?  Or maybe you need to market it better.  

We also talk about future goals.  Are you thinking of doing some sort of expansion?  Do you have enough money in the bank or will you qualify for a loan for that new vehicle or piece of equipment?  Are you planning an event or promotion that you want to track your return on investment (ROI) on?  The possibilities are endless and we are here to listen to you.  Maybe I should start a new profession called “Cash Flow Therapist”.  If you want to learn more about how we can help your business grow – schedule a discovery call with me!