Tuesday, 5 November 2013

Turnover vanity, profit sanity, cash-flow reality


A root cause of the failure of many businesses is the focus on increasing sales whilst at the same time ignoring the true benefits of the profits originating from the increased turnover.

It is far too easy to be lulled into a false sense of the company’s welfare by an increase of sales unless it is accompanied by a proportionate increase in the bottom line.

Strong financial controls are crucial as are customer-facing functions or what used to be deemed as “customer service”.

In many cases the best business strategy for a “start-up” or a SME would be to focus on smaller projects with higher margins rather than chasing volumes and sales with thin returns. So called prestige accounts are also a luxury than many companies could do without.

The focus has to be on increasing growth whilst at the same time controlling and wherever possible reducing overheads.

The reality of a strongly managed cash-flow is that profits are then available to be used to settle accounts with suppliers or other operating (overhead) costs. A lax approach to cash-flow will inevitably see the company running out of funds and unable to fulfil its obligations.  

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