Services & Advice
Credit Crunch – Tough Times – Services and advice to help
Times are tough, but the rules of running a business successfully don’t change. It is a time to be reminded of many basic essentials in running a business (even if they aren’t always easy to do).
To help you through this difficult time we’ve pulled together various services and advice in one place.
As a starting point, download our Tough Times Business Checklist. It covers various different parts of running your business and acts as an excellent aide-memoire.
The key to surviving when times are tough then succeeding in the longer term is in:
- Keeping the right staff on board
- Managing your debts
- Keeping your customers loyal
- Being wary of cutting prices
- Not neglecting marketing, and
- Planning for both the short run and the long term, cash as well as profit
Thinking of these issues now will pre-empt any problems further down the line. We have a free helpsheet, “How to survive when times are tough” covering the above points in more depth. If you wish to receive a copy of the helpsheet, please complete the Comment box under Contact Us.
Where can we help?
Our credit crunch – tough times services
We offer the following services (to find out more click on the underlined link):
- Cash flow management – talk to us about managing your stock, debtors and creditors more effectively
- Cash flow forecasting – cash flow is the lifeblood of the business and those who forecast their cash flows are better equipped to cope with the future. We can help by advising you on how to introduce a cash flow forecast into your business
- Business planning:
- Business plans & forecasts – formal business plans and forecasts as required by a bank for the purpose of raising finance
- Business Energizer – a quick two hour session to help you firstly, focus on what really matters in your business and life and secondly, helps you to get there
- Business Advisory Growth Plan – facilitated strategic planning sessions to help you plan for the future you want and then keep you on track
- Identify the key performance indicators (KPI’s) and critical numbers that help run your business and generate your profits
- Or try our One Page Strategic Business Plan – condense your plans onto one page – the exercise focuses on your core values and purpose, the vision for the business, your unique selling points, KPI’s together with the long term strategies and annual goals for the business
- Succession and exit strategy – plan for the future you want
- Profit improvement and cost reduction – identify the main profit generating areas in your business
- Bookkeeping and payroll services – outsource these services to us freeing up resources and time within your business
- Start up advisory and support services - if you wish to start up a business, we can help. We have helped many local businesses start up in the last 2/3 years
We also have a number of useful helpsheets available on request (please complete the Comment box under Contact Us):
- 10 tips for avoiding bad debts
- Keeping an eye on your cash flow
- Six steps to an effective business plan
- How to present a request for finance to your bank
- How to increase your profits
Also have a look at our other helpsheets, covering many areas of accounts, tax and running a business including starting up in business.
Our business advice section of the website has further general business advice.
Finally have a read of our free to download Year End Tax Strategies Guide which has been written to advise in these tough times generated by the credit crunch.
Why not take advantage of our finance training day covering the following:
- Discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of your existing financial records and accounting records
- Discuss the key performance indicators (KPI’s) that you need to monitor in the business
- Discuss the breakeven points within the business
- Perform “what-if” analyses on pricing within the business
- Setting the company’s operating budget and cash flow for the next 12 months
- Complete the financial strategies at the end of the day
Gain peace of mind that you are doing all the right things to gain an understanding and control of finances within your business.
Above all this is a time to be positive while everyone else is being negative. Have a look at the recommended business books we have enjoyed reading and which have acted as a source of inspiration.
Please note that if you want a free no obligation chat on any of the above areas, please don’t hesitate to get in touch on 01924 254802 and leave a message for Jan to call you back.