Tag: Social investment

Understanding Finance

Understanding Finance in business there is common approach for an owner to delegate or outsource all financial management to others.

The bottom line is just how much money is there in the bank or stock to sell. As we approach weaking market investment and stagnating grow we need to accept that Understanding Finance is important.

Flat lay of business concept

More than Cashflow

During the early 1990s it was very common to attend business start up workshops that focused on projections built around cashflow. This is a flawed concept because cash can be committed years before it is used, an excellent lever but not a good idea to spend.

How many businesses go into liquidation missing simple things, taxation payments mount, pension costs, new models of core products. One of my employers was caught with £30k old stock in mobiles when we bought each unit in at £1k+. We ended up letting them go for £600 per unit and took the hit.

The reason £600 was acceptable linked wholly to cashflow. He failed to look at product redundancy, refused to supply other retailers, all measures that could have been mitigated by good risk management.

Building Financial skills

Economic performance is more than simply judging the cash value of your business and turnover, social impact and investment are critical to sustainable development.

Know how many times your income supports the local economy.

Learn about the break points in a financial report, know when your accountant or bookkeeper is not firing on all cylinders. Understanding the modelling and planning is one part.

Financial Discipline

If you have all the controls but fail to exercise them you are like so many businesses in for a rough ride. Those affected by seasonal drops or expecting high income for just a couple of months a year are better off looking at a whole asset management approach.

If finance is a foreign language to you or the directors of a company ensure you access some basic training.

I’m not sharing what we do or how we complete a whole company audit and set up your business for future sustainable development. Call us for that information (+44) 07766738799 – leave a message. or use the contact form

Keep your business growing

Understanding Politics

Understanding Politics is a fruitless task. The people who can make decisions that really count and make a big difference aren’t politicians.

For example: the real power behind the throne is money! Money and Power go hand in glove, it is rare to experience one without the other. For those without either it is never to their advantage.

History

Quakers were different, they had the money and access to power but decided to lift everyone with the new found wealth.

Focused on housing, education, health and rewarding work. They changed the UK and Europe.

However, along came the wars, one thing they wouldn’t engage in and their influence and power was lost. Replaced by Mutual Societies and Unions. Again some benefit to ordinary lives.

All short lived and doomed to failure. This is simply because No Good Idea goes unexploited. Government is designed to exploit the people based on a contract of safety and security. Rarely present in any culture.

Business and Trade

Money has always controlled how governments behave from the “robber barons” to the modern global organisations. They want the ordinary people to remain poor and fund the infrastructure they exploit.

So what works? The answer is focus on the three things you control:

  • Investment
  • Spending
  • Time

If we fail to invest in business we fail to invest the future, because it drives innovation and rewards imagination.

Spend recklessly and the big businesses get richer and the local high street closes. People lose their homes because small businesses fail and the government gets bigger.

From the software we use to the food we eat there is real choice but it all depends on how we use our time! 168 hours in every week and the media controls on average 3 to 5 hours a day. Filling minds with despair and depression – just look at the soaps.

The world created can be changed and it will be when people come before profit, honesty and integrity come before income, when food and good housing are truly a “Human Right”.

Open your eyes

50 years of trying to make sense of senselessness is going to make you old, depressed and discontent.

We can’t change the political world or commerce globally but we can invest in a real future by setting accountable targets and personal goals that ask hard questions of others.

Stop following and start searching, Business can make a big difference when there is a commitment to value, to fairness and a balance based on real need. Feed the poor, house the homeless and ensure work is available. We do that not through Politics but through controlling our investment, spending and time.

Free style writing is a relief and after more than 30 years it is good to finally say, “the big con is on and the majority have been sucked in” the sad thing is the pay-off is going to result in more than the effects of global warming and climate change.

So back to my business, I will be available to write documents and sell product, but why not set me a real challenge – ask me for the best social value strategy for business and become the difference in just a few lives. Everyone does it we change the world. No one does it then my favourite Dad’s Army quote rings true “We’re Doooom!!”