Tag: Business Strategy
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The Intersection of Sales & Profit (FINAL PART)
Sales & Profit Today, we’re wrapping up a 4-part series on sales & marketing & profit: Check out the links above to recap previous articles. Our goal today is to improve decision making when it comes to sales & marketing (S&M) efforts through feedback loops. First, what is a feedback loop? We measure our marketing…
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Defining Your Financial Situation
Before digging into the financial plumbing of a new business, client, or acquisition, I like to level-set on where the business stands: We don’t need to do any deep analysis to answer these questions. “Do you have debt? Yes! I have a big bank loan.” Today, we’ll look at a few business situations to help…
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Building a Financial Review Routine
What’s your financial cadence? Business owners have a typical financial review process that goes something like this: Financial statement analysis is the primary tool when it comes to evaluating business performance (I’ve said this before). There’s a “what” component and a “when” component to that analysis; here’s a simple routine that should work for most…
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The Quarterly View
Taking the quarterly view It’s not too late to review 2024 annual financial statements. In fact, most public companies are still reporting Q4 and full year results. Like other business owners, I have a strong preference for monthly financial statements; but, with yearend in full swing, it felt like a good time to pitch the quarterly…
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The Action Priority Matrix
The basic steps for getting things done could be summed up as: I’m always looking for new ways to compartmentalize work and life. Lately, I’ve been using a simple framework referred to as the “Action Priority Matrix.” It’s a close cousin to the Eisenhower Decision Matrix which blends urgent and important tasks into categories of: do, schedule,…
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Defining Your Business Model (and Profit Model)
To run a successful business, you need 3 essential models: Sounds simple and you probably have a sense for these in your head. If you’re managing a large team, trying to grow, or climbing toward profitability; then keeping your models in your head won’t scale. You know… that concept of rowing in the same direction?…
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The Easy 4-Step Process to Build a Business Scorecard
If I were to “drop in” on your business today, could you tell me how things are going this week? Most business owners don’t have a formal tool or process for monitoring early warning signs (both good warnings and bad warnings). These “tools” go by many names: KPIs, scorecard, dashboard, balanced scorecard, report card. Queue…
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How to Work On Your Business Using Strategy
Can you give a quick and straightforward answer to questions like: If you’re anything like most business owners I know (myself included), then you probably live in a real-life version of whack-a-mole with tasks, details, decisions, and fire drills coming at you daily. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase (cliché?): work on your business, not in it. Let’s walk through…
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Capital Allocation Part III: Return on Capital
We’re wrapping up a 3-part series (here’s part I and part II) on capital allocation – the effective use of profits and cash flow – with a concept called Return on Invested Capital (ROIC). [Sometimes just called return on capital or ROC.] First, a quick reminder of our balance sheet – we buy or build assets for the purpose…
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Capital Allocation Part II: Cash Sources and Uses
Sources & uses of cash This is Part 2 of a series on capital allocation. A quick recap from last week: We defined the 3 uses of profits as capital allocation. They are: Where we left off was how to assess capital allocation… let’s cover one of the best methods for evaluating capital allocation, a tool we refer to…