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 this.Our sales team is tasked with finding new customers, and helping them find the best solutions to their...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 goal each year. They are: 1. Production: what did the business get from this department?...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 people are focused on these 3 things, why separate the sales and orders functions within a...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 to do something for $10 less than you're doing it now you get to keep the whole $10. This is one of...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 no longer responsible for a loan deficit if the lender sells the home for less money than is owed.This legal transaction starts after the homeowner has fallen behind on his loan payments and is in foreclosure. Even if the foreclosure has not started yet, the lender can be approached and asked if they will accept a "deed in lieu of" continuing into the foreclosure process. Sometimes the lenders regulations require the homeowner to be behind on his payments before they will consider accepting the deed, usually 90 days in judicial foreclosure states and 30 days in non-judicial states.Unfortunately the homeowner is, or shortly will be inundated by people trying to help with his foreclosure because he has become part of the public record and usually he is getting information from well-meaning but uninformed people. However, he will be set upon by professionals looking to sell him foreclosure services or take the equity from his home by...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
Many of us take our bank accounts for granted these days but it is important to remember that bank accounts are not available to everyone, and these accounts are vital in helping most of us to run our day to day finances. There are a number of...more
If you are a homeowner in the UK and you are looking to borrow money for one of a wide range of purposes, then you can enjoy an added advantage compared to non-homeowners, and this is the ability to use your home as security. Your home can act as a...more
Over the past few years secured loans have become increasingly popular amongst homeowners in the UK, and this rising popularity has been partly fuelled by rising property prices, which have left homeowners with higher levels of equity in their homes....more