Strategic leadership is vital for important business growth. Learn more about strategic leadership in these blog posts.
Some customers make you money and others take it from you. We once worked with a small manufacturing business who thought they were making 3% net profit. We had the pleasure of telling them that the figure was actually closer to 9%. Less happily, one of our colleagues worked with a trading business that had […]
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When it comes down to your customers, they each have a lifetime value. This value is important because it can help you determine just how much time and money to invest in acquiring a customer. With this information, you can do detailed budgeting and marketing avenues scrutinised to check they are worth the spend. So, […]
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The costs our businesses spend on research and development are often taken for granted; and worse still, from an accounting perspective, rarely classified as R&D. After all, some expenditure can be seen as wasted when we follow certain paths that don’t lead to a successful outcome. The Financial Act 2000, states that at least a […]
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When you are looking to tighten the financial aspects of your business it is always best to look for a quality Chief Financial Officer, or “CFO”. A person in this position must have particular qualities and you should have a certain vibe when you meet them. Otherwise you will find that the working relationship is […]
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Recruiting and maintaining staff can be one of the most expensive costs for your business. It isn’t just the wages that you need to consider when hiring staff. Making the wrong hiring decision can be disastrous. Therefore, it is important that you consider the hidden or forgotten costs of employing new staff. It is especially […]
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In the summer of 2013, the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, stated that the Monetary Policy Committee would not consider increasing interest rates until unemployment was at 7%. At the time unemployment was at 7.8% and it was projected to take a couple of years to get down to the 7% target. […]
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I can safely say that a couple of my clients think I’m a pretty good guy; and for an accountant, that can be a slightly unusual place to be! The reason is embarrassingly simple. They are both CEOs of young businesses that have been going full steam for a year or so with the business […]
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“If you are thinking of buying or selling a business … here is a combined personal and professional perspective!” So – how do you value a business? Any accountant who has sat professional exams will remember this as a study topic loved by examiners probably due to the rich source of complex calculations on some […]
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“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” However, if you don’t know your starting position, the journey may be considerably longer. For a business, this means knowing your most vital operating information. As your time is limited and information is not free, you need to identify the minimum facts about your […]
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We are regularly asked why a business should have a chief financial officer when the business owner already has an accountant who completes his/her annual report and accounts. The answer is that they perform very different roles. As a keen archer, I use the analogy of receiving a report of your scores at the end […]
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