Profit Sabotage! What’s Keeping your Business from its Financial Goals?

If you’ve never thought much about what’s keeping your business from hitting those financial targets, here are a few questions to help you discover if this is affecting you.

Let’s rip the Band-Aid off and jump right into it!

Do you know your cash flow?

Let’s face it, managing your money can be scary. I mean, what’s up with all these numbers and what do they even mean?! Yet taking control of your finances and running your business is the most important thing you can do.  Spending the time to work out your your cash flow will be pivotal in creating a sustainable financial plan. The plan ultimately is to have extra cash at the end of the month so you can save, pay down debt, reinvest in the business or take profits.

Do you pay yourself first?

This one may be a toughie to grasp and put into practice, but you should. If you have ever been on an airplane, no doubt you will remember the flight attendant encouraging that, in case of an emergency you are to put on your mask first before trying to help others.

Why? Because if you try to help others before you secure yourself you could end up making things worse for you and the person in one go.

The same applies for business. You need to secure yourself first, so that you are fully able to take care of your employees, vendors and even your customers.

Are you working on your business or on your busyness?

This is a big one, it may even explain why you feel so frustrated and the reason your business isn’t growing.

I know, I know, you have all these things to do, from creating the product, delivering the product and everything else  in between. Don’t get me wrong that’s needed, but what’s also needed is for you to put in the time to steer the ship.

The truth is you have to be deliberate and set aside time for strategic planning and periodically looking back at the plan you created and see how well you are doing.  You may discover that everything is on track or that you need to change direction in order to achieve your financial goals.

Also, consider hosting annual staff retreats to plan for the year ahead or quarterly reviews to make sure you are staying on course.

When was the last time you went on YouTube? Did you search for financial advice on how to run your business? I challenge you to get on YouTube right now watch at least three such videos. Are you back? No, seriously, watch a couple videos.

I am sure it wasn’t that bad, your brain didn’t explode. And,  maybe you didn’t get everything on the first go; that’s ok! You can go back and watch it again and again or find another video that explains it better.

Here are a few ideas about other things you can do to start learning more about finances and running a business:

• Learn Excel
• Look into “Accounting for Beginners“
• Take one of these Business Administration Courses

Do you have financial goals?

Having financial goals but no plans to achieve them is like jumping into a taxi and not know where you want to go. That’s not a good idea.

Having the dream is only part of the plan. The only way to make dreams real is to have a plan and execute it.

This is just as true for financial goals. Sometimes it’s like a compass; depending on where you want to go, it will point you in the right direction.

You may not achieve your goals on or before the date you have set, but the plan helps put  you on a path to achieve them.