The basic philosophy behind the sales perspective is the more you sell the more money you make. This makes a lot of sense, so let's take a look at business management from the perspective of a sales led organization.The basic representation of business from a sales perspective consists of four main steps:1. finding leads2. converting those leads3. closing the deal4. delivering the product or serviceThe end goal, as always, is...more
If you want to turn on the profit making potential of your business you need to put your focus back on the market.Market First, Product SecondAsk yourself this simple question. Who is my target market? Now stop for a minute and write down your answer so you can't deny it in two seconds when I ask the next question.Now put your answer in the middle of this sentence. "I think I'll phone _________ and see what they are doing." When you put your...more
Early in my career I believed that hard work was the key to success. Most of my first jobs were doing manual labor, and I was often complemented for how hard I worked on a consistent basis. The harder I worked, the faster we got things done, and so I believe that hard work was the key to success. After graduating with a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering my first corporate job was testing and developing software that required me to be somewhat creative and perform certain tasks, and I did them to the best of my ability. I looked around and saw 30 other people doing the same. As long as everyone was pitching in and working hard I figured we must be making a lot of progress.A few years later I moved into a position managing a team of software designers. They had been without a manager (and hence without leadership) for some time, and I still remember the day I moved into my new office. There was round table in one corner piled 6 inches high with a messy pile of white, orange and yellow papers. The papers were strewn out covering most of the table top, many just managing to not spill off the sides. On quick inspection I realized each paper was filled out with some type of...more
Let's take a look at a financial perspective of business and examine where the money goes. A favorite saying of one of my mentors is "follow the piles of cash". Although this is not all there is to business, it is definitely something you can never lose sight of as a manager or business leader. Cash flow is in a business goes something like...more
How do you measure success? After years of trial, error, training and research I have a management tip for you: the four top level measurements that I recommend everyone have in place across their business or team. They should be built into everyone's goals and objectives each year. Every department head should have improvements to one of them as a...more
At a high level there are only two ways to grow a business: increase sales and decrease costs. Here's a simple management tip that will save you a lot of wasted effort. Before you start looking at the details of each method, you should understand the layout of a simple profit and loss statement and some basic terms your senior management team is very familiar with. These are the measurements that matter to business leaders.The Bottom Line Definition of GrowthBusinesses are ultimately measured by owners and investors by how much profit they generate. Simply put this is how much money is left after all the costs are paid. Let's take a look at a simplified business profit and loss (or income and expense) statement.Sales Revenue $1,000,000- Variable Costs (material, labor, etc) - $500,000= Gross Profit $500,000 - Fixed Costs (overhead, building, etc) - $300,000= Profit $200,000 - Taxes - $50,000= Profit after Tax $150,000In this example the top line of the P&L (profit and loss) Statement is $1,000,000 and labeled Sales Revenue. The top line is always Sales Revenue, and as a result growing the sales side of a business has come to be commonly referred to as top line...more
Sales is all about helping customers shop for and get what they need or want. It places focus on finding leads, converting leads, and closing the deal. Once those three things are done, all you need to do is deliver the product. So if sales minded...more
The more efficiently you can fill orders the more money you get to keep from each sale. If you sell an extra $10 product you may only get to keep $1 or $2 after you finish paying for the product, warehouses, salaries, etc. But if you can find a way...more
A "Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure" is when a lender accepts a deed to the homeowner's property in foreclosure instead of continuing the foreclosure process and incurring more expenses to get the deed anyway. However, this does not mean the homeowner is...more
A secured loan is a loan that is available to homeowners, and this is because these loans are secured against the home. With equity levels rising steeply over recent years, secured loans have become a popular, affordable, and effective way for many...more
According to officials from the Office of Fair Trading many people may be paying way over the odds for their credit card borrowing, and the lenders that provide these cards could be raking in around £400 million every year simply because of the...more
It is important that you do your homework before you make an application for a loan, as this will not only help to ensure affordability for you, but could also help to speed up the whole process, enabling you to get the loan you need without any...more