5 New Year's Resolutions that Will Make You Millions
5 New Year's Resolutions that Will Make You Millions
The beginning of a New Year is a time to reach out and grab a shooting star – last year’s victories have been celebrated, last year’s conundrums are resolved, and this year can start with the sparkle of a rocket launch.
You want your vision of an outcome from this year’s activities to happen, so make note – write down key areas to focus on so that you can land your rocket-ship solidly in the stars.
The 5 components of success
Of the many companies that we have guided in growing and transacting, we can confidently say that a plan to achieve your vision must include the 5 areas discussed below, and you must excel in accomplishing them every month.
These 5 components will assure you of being in the best position to keep ahead of the pack, grow, and reap the rewards of increased profits.
These components of success may seem obvious, but many CEOs of significantly sized companies don’t have this information readily at their fingertips, where it needs to be!
Vital information
It starts with your company’s information - financial and statistical. This information is used to incent, to redirect, and to measure key performance indicators.
There are several reasons a CEO does not receive key performance information immediately. It may be that the financial staff are overwhelmed with the day-to-day or it may be that the accounting software is not able to deliver a dashboard.
We all know that timely receipt of this information is critical and the lack of this vital data often translates into millions of dollars of lost revenue.
Company Readiness for Growth Score
Take this small test and rank yourself. The top score is 15 and the lowest score is 5. Score yourself at 3 = “Yes, Absolutely!” or 2 = “Sort of” or 1 = “I don’t have a Clue”.
If you scored:
13 and above: You are running an awesome company! Your organization is doing great and you should be increasing your sales quarter over quarter. If you had a dashboard with KPIs showing month-over-month performance, could you use this information to support decisions and would that enable you to double your sales over the next three years? What is your company worth now compared to what it could be worth then?
Above 8 but under 13: You're going in the right direction. But consider how your company could grow if you had more timely information about your company’s performance. If you could see your Profit & Loss Statement every week, would your management meetings have more substance, leading to better decisions about where to put sales and marketing efforts? What could profits become if you had your team incented to report on their performance frequently?
Under 8: Stop and reassess what you ask of your top management. Ask what it would take to improve in just one of the above areas and if you would then be in a better position to grow. Putting in place timely and regular reporting will add a discipline to qualifying financial results. Put all excuses aside and ask your team to prepare a report on sales by customer, sales by SKU, marketing campaigns with costs and anticipated results. These reports alone will give you a barometer of health for your company and support your decisions on where to apply efforts that turn into increasing sales. Without this frequent reporting, it is certain that you are missing out on millions of dollars in future sales.
Dashboards
Financials and statistics are not just for year-end. Without timely reports on financials, sales, and marketing, you are operating in the dark.
You need to make it a priority to have frequent and easy access to the performance of your company.
A ‘dashboard’ that contains a snapshot of key data including Cash Balances, Accounts Receivable from your top ten customers, Accounts Payable to your top ten suppliers, Sales this month compared to last year same month, Sales this quarter over last quarter, and sales this year over last year comparing growth by dollars and by percentage.
New Year’s Resolutions for your company
As you put together your New Year’s Resolutions for your company, think about this - whatever your sales are today, they could be 20% higher simply by increasing your score above in one of the five areas. Get busy. Get value.
New Year’s Resolution - I Will
Make a resolution - substitute the "Do you" in each question above with "I will". Reach that star. Land your rocket-ship!
Contact Us
We can help you make it happen and bring your business to a whole new level.
Let's talk. JUSTMAN@STEPSTRATEGY.NET
