R. Mcquarrie - Consultant

How is your cash flow? Hope everyone has their "what if" flex budgets coming for 2019. It's a really good exercise in assessing your business in 2018, and thinking about what might change in the next year and how it might impact profit and cash flow. It also allows you to do a stress test in case of something major outside your control happens. There's talk of a US recession but I think it’s too soon.

So you have a functional business and you are always seeking ways to add to your customer base. Have you taken the time to understand the key drivers of your operation and how critical they are? Do the staff executing their jobs understand those key drivers? If not you are throwing away profits.

Talk To Employees About Making a Profit A lot of employers shy away from discussing profits with employees.. Maybe some of them have RRSP’s & hopefully they get a return. Are you not entitled to a return on your business investment? Of course! Profits, invested in further growth provide employee advancement, opportunity for better pay, maybe even a bonus! For your business to succeed you need everyone working toward the same goals and the motivation to do it.

Do Your Employees Interact With Customers If they do they can have a huge impact both negative and positive. What impression is left on a customer after an encounter? You will probably never know. Are the exchanges between employees all good? This may provide a clue to customer exchanges. Bottom line, you need to know, repeat business and a word of mouth recommendation depend on it.

Actively Manage Employees As busy as you are its easy to ignore the performance gap between your employees (easily 200%). Training & mentoring take time but you must not ignore this important task. Low productivity eats away at your margins in a slow and painful way which is hard to reverse.

Take Care Of Top Performers There is a huge difference in employee productivity (easily 200%). It is not hard to identify the superstars in your organization. Make sure they are appropriately compensated and rewarded.

Do A Time Audit Be aware of how your time is really being used, and choose tasks that provide the highest value with the lowest use of resources as high priority once urgent matters have been dealt with. It may sound tedious, but a time audit can reveal surprising information and lead to positive change.

Outsource Non-essential Functions You probably have a number of low level tasks handled by yourself or others with essential duties because well, someone has to do it. Things like travel arrangements, bookkeeping, filing, getting discounts from suppliers, handling routine calls, data entry, etc. Think about outsourcing. There are lots of people who don’t want full time that will work for a fixed fee per task.

Corporate tax returns are expensive even if you have a very simple return regardless of a gain or loss. How you prepare your books can also effect the cost. I do corporate returns for less, sometimes half of what you paid last year. Expert advice, proven track record, references.

Think About This A lot of your time and money is spent on prospecting new customers. That is great for a start-up, but over time, reducing costs and increasing efficiency improves the customer experience which saves money and increases repeat business. Best of all those repeat customers now promote your business, further increasing sales. Expert advice, proven track record, references.

Go Virtual Telecommuting is a win, win, win. It saves your business office space, lost productivity and office expenses. Employees save time and money and it helps the environment. Where else can you get a triple win! Many employers are afraid that if they can’t see you working you must be slacking off. NOT TRUE. The employee benefits are so high they work HARDER and LONGER to keep the privilege. Caution.You must have a good policy and follow it. If you want help with this contact me.

Something to think about Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success. This is when the going is most difficult. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown.

Make A List I'm a fan of lists. Lists help you stay on track. If tasks are written down in front of you, you decrease the chances of them being overlooked or forgotten. You can also streamline your day if you have a list of specific pending items, rather than jumping around to whatever you think of next.

Delegate Smart Employees are often assigned tasks they are not trained or suited for. This can be costly in many ways. Match the right person and the right pay to the tasks required. If needed use part time or contract services.

Renegotiate with Suppliers Things change over time for you and your suppliers. Try calling as many of your suppliers as you can and ask for a discount, free shipping or some other cost savings. If you are a good customer they will want to keep your business.

Avoid costly mistakes Everyone makes mistakes but it takes 3 to 5 times longer to fix a mistake after the event than it does to slow down and do it right the first time. There is working fast and then there is working smart.

Don’t Multitask. Whenever possible eliminate multitasking for you and your employees. Give everyone just one task to focus on, and as important, assign a task that they are best suited to. When you bounce from task to task it takes time to remember where you were and refocus each time. This is inefficient and prone to oversights or mistakes. Staying focused on one task until completion ensures that they're crossed off and done to the fullest potential.

Save on Electricity. When you turn an electrical appliance off, you may assume that it isn’t going to use any power. Many still do. Computers, monitors, televisions, cable boxes, anything with an LCD panel or light and chargers (cell phone). More power if a charged device is attached. Use a power strip, surge protector or just unplug electronic devices when they are not in use.