The aim of any business is to generate sustainable profit and positive cash flows consistently. If a business is unprofitable or isn’t cash positive, it can’t survive. It isn’t a viable business.
Ensuring profit requires understanding and management on the part of the business owners and managers. And that is only possible with measurement tools and the ability to decipher the data put in front of you. You have an accountant, but do you know how to use your numbers to drive business performance?
Financial statements combined with relevant key performance measures are essential tools that provide the basis for any review. These tools enable owners and managers to identify and manage the main drivers of profitability and cash flow. As a result they are better able to keep improving financial performance and meet the challenges of today’s competitive landscape.
We make sure you have the right measures and review processes in place so you can take informed action when you need to and keep your business on track.
Call us today to find out how Gibsons can help you maximise and measure the profitability and cash flow of your business.
How we can help you
Financial Analysis
- Review and analysis of your Profit & Loss Statements to identify the profit drivers in your business and areas of strength and weakness. This highlights the key areas of focus for the business in terms of financial performance and what needs to be measured and monitored.
- Analysis of your balance sheet to assess your financial sustainability; levels of return on the investment in the business; solvency;liquidity;and working capital effectiveness.
Financial Reporting
- Review of your financial reporting structure to ensure that your financial reports provide effective management information that will guide your decision making.Often we see that reports are structured only for tax purposes. Tailoring financial reports to enable ease of measurement and management of the business can often provide insight into improving the financial results of the business.
- Training of key staff in how to read financial reports and use the information that they contain.
Cashflow Management
- Understand the difference between cash and profit.
- Identify the areas in the business that impact on cash flow and how to manage them effectively.
- Develop forecasts of cashflow to identify where action will need to be taken before it is too late.
Product Costing and Pricing
- Develop a costing and pricing model for your products or services that takes into account all the costs that are attributable to them. You can then implement a pricing strategy knowing exactly how profitable each product or service is.
Profit Strategies
- Everyone has heard the common profit strategies of “spend money to make money”, “follow the 80/20 rule” and “focus on sales out the door”, but what is your profit strategy, and is it the right one for your business needs? A good profit strategy will take into account:
- Strategic Marketing principles including Pricing, Distribution, Product and Promotion,
- HR –is your culture or People Framework driving high turnover rates or poor performance?
- Process improvements.
- It looks at the way your whole business operates, from end-to-end.
Key Performance Measures
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are critically important when used correctly. In their simplest form a handful of measures can provide incredible focus and lead to very positive change within a business.
To be effective these measures need to be:
- Easy to measure. Systems and processes, report structures and other functions may need to be adjusted to ensure that measures are easy and timely to produce. The easier it is to produce, the more timely and the more timely and relevant it is to current decisionmaking and strategy.
- Charted. Key Performance Measures are sometimes relevant and useful as one-off measures. However, they gain much more relevance when presented visually as trends over time and comparisons year-to-year.
- Limited to a number that are directly related to the key drivers of your business. Too many measures lead to atrophy in terms of their effectiveness in influencing decision making and in formulating strategy.
- Reviewed and acted upon. Key Performance Measures create the need to investigate and then act. An active review and follow up process is essential.
Gibsons Consultants can customise your measurement processes and techniques to suit your business so that you end up with a manageable, actionable set of initiatives that can really take you forward.
Feasibility Studies
Feasibility Studies require a full understanding across all areas of business from marketing, financial, operational, people and regulation etc.
Some recent examples of Gibsons Feasibility Studies:
- Developing innovative food processing facilities in an agricultural business.
- Developing a second manufacturing facility in another state.
- Establishing a factory operation in China.
- Expanding facilities into a new product range for a food processing business.
Gibsons Consultants are business specialists that can provide an experienced perspective to any feasibility study.
For a guiding hand with your business, speak to our experienced consultants.
