Business Tip of the Week: Finances
by Gareth Cotten on 22/03/10 at 12:00 pm
1 comment
Budgeting. Along the same lines as last week’s Finance tip, take time at the beginning of the tax year to prepare a budget for the coming 12 months. This budget should include your projected income and expenses, as well as your cash-flow, and is an excellent planning and management tool.
Take into account your expected growth (or decline) in revenue, and whether this is spread out over the year or seasonal in nature. Speak to your suppliers and try to get an idea of potential cost increases for next year. Will they be more than usual because of the worldwide financial slump, or remain reasonably predictable?
If you are looking at growing your business, make sure that this is reflected in your budget – through significant but achievable increases in revenue and profit (and don’t forget the accompanying cost increases). Refer back to this budget regularly (weekly, monthly or quarterly) to see whether your business is performing as you want it to – if not, question the reasons why. Importantly, don’t be afraid to adjust your budget as your information and position changes – it’s one of many management tools at your disposal, and isn’t set in stone…
Gareth Cotten is one of the growing breed of SA entrepreneurs with that ‘world-domination’ look in his eyes. Gareth runs the coaching and consulting practice 'Good Advice'. Gareth is also the 'course convener' for the University of Cape Town (Law@Work) Start and Manage a Small Business course and the University of Cape Town Basics of Financial Management course. View more articles by Gareth Cotten.
Tags: Business/Finance
uberVU - social comments
Mar 23rd, 2010
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by ideateblog: Business Tip of the Week: Finances http://ff.im/-hTy09...