Where Your Business Is VS Where Your Business Should Be

It is that time of year again! We have more sales months behind us for the year than we have remaining. How is 2017 shaping up for you? Profit Team Consulting feels that the current environment is conducive to making profits. Knowing where you currently stand financially is important for a variety of reasons. We believe in having and following a budget as it establishes the road map to a company’s success and future.

Most business owners have an idea of how profitable they are. Now is the time to look to see exactly how profitable. Will you have to pay a lot of taxes? o spend more money this year or pay it in taxes? Knowing that now allows you to provide the best value for your company when it comes to purchasing additional assets.

If the business is falling short for the year, now is the time to take a look at the numbers, which will point out where the shortcomings are. Once they are identified, corrective actions can be taken.

Another opportunity is being presented to plan for the end of the year. Are there any last minute projects or major refurbishments needed? Are you attending the ARA Trade Show or any other state association shows? If you take the time now, you can put all of this in your budget.

The pain of summer vacations should be in full swing by now. This allows you to see how strong each of your departments are when they are shorthanded. Your cross training is also tested. Learn from any shortcomings and make changes. This leads to a great time for employee reviews. It is best to keep compensation and reviews as separate things. We always think our goals align with the goals of our employees, but this is sometimes not the case. Which is not always a bad thing, but it could be. Reviews help keep open the lines of communication throughout the company.

Having a deeper look at your financials now will also help you bring 2018 into focus. Do you want to grow your sales? If so, by what percentage? How much do you need to spend on salvage to grow your sales at the stated growth percentage? What are the limiting factors in selling that number?

It seems like once July disappears the rest of the calendar zips by. The first of 2018 will be here before we know it.  There will be a lot of people who go into the year full of optimism armed with a plan of how they are going to be successful. There will also be some people who are pessimistic about the industry and their plan will not lead them to being successful. Now is the time for you to decide which side you will be on and lead your business in that direction moving forward.