INSIGHTS

Do you have an energy strategy? Even with the governments proposed interventions energy costs feel like they are spiralling out of control. Energy has been a relatively predictable cost over the last couple of decades, but as with Covid lockdown, uncertainty makes any…

Every business needs to innovate, to stay relevant to their customers and stay ahead of their competition. But successful innovation requires thorough planning and careful implementation. Financial planning is a key part of this. Lets face it; it’s easier to come up…

How do you keep control of marketing spend in a growing business? How much should your business be spending on marketing? Is it an investment in the future or just a cost? Marketing spend is a difficult sell to accountants – there is no way of guaranteeing that it…

What’s the most effective way of controlling spending in your business? Previously I have talked about whether or not a budget is an effective tool to control spending and concluded that it’s not. A budget is a tool for building an overview of strategy and assessing…

Budgeting for real life is a never ending challenge: most likely you’ll be wrong, the only uncertainty is by how much. But, as I’ve talked about before, it is an exercise worth persevering with. An effective budget is a vital tool for building a successful business….

Did you work out a budget for this year, as per normal? Have you thrown it out yet?! It’s easy not to bother at the moment; the last few years have shown how little certainty we really have when we try to plan ahead and the last 12 months have made it clear that…

How can you plan for the future when you don’t know what it holds? Come to think of it: what do you not know about your business? December is usually a busy month for business planning with my clients as we spend time looking at the next year in more detail. That…

It can be difficult to get practical advice for micro business, especially when you’re on a budget. In an effort to share good advice and help every business thrive despite the current restrictions the team at North Devon’s Business Action magazine has developed a…

I spend a lot of time talking about cashflow, but how do you create a cashflow forecast for yourself? Where do you get the information from? What does it mean! Here’s my guide to creating a worthwhile cashflow forecast for your business: How To Start Your Cashflow…

Does a second lockdown mean cashflow crisis for your business? What can you do to avoid it? We know that a lot more businesses are allowed to stay open this time than were able to in March, but staying open is not necessarily a good outcome. A lot of SMEs have used up…

The saying “Cash is King” is very true: profit doesn’t pay the bills. But that doesn’t help when there just isn’t enough cash to go round and you need help with managing cashflow and getting out of trouble. This is the final instalment in a series of posts that I…

Generally people only think about cashflow when there is a shortage of cash in the bank to pay the bills. But what happens if you find your business with surplus cash in the bank? For some businesses at present that is a very real possibility, either because the…

AMZCO Construction specialises in building and maintaining anaerobic digestion plants. They work on a small number of complex, multi million pound projects meaning that it is vital that they have timely, reliable information to help keep control of the finances. On…

Why is it that all year end accounts look the same? Does that reflect the information that readers need? Accounting regulations are massively complicated and I am not disputing the need for that; it is important to make sure that any two sets of accounts can be…

I was introduced to Ecocleen South West and the owner Jim Humphrey by his accountant in 2018. The business was growing exponentially but there was not enough information available to track profitability and manage cashflow. Initially quarterly bookkeeping (in Xero)…

Right now (mid September 2020) the media are shouting about the end of the furlough scheme, but the closing date for applications to the CBILS scheme at the end of this month seems to be slipping by with less interest. Most businesses that I come across have taken…

Previously I have talked about the importance of having a cashflow forecast, and how to get started creating one. Next in my series of posts about cashflow is my top tips for first aid for when that forecast is looking gloomy. 1. Good decisions need good data You…

Financial Direction is about using good management accounts to improve profits and cashflow. That’s a pretty big claim, so what do I really mean? Xero produces management reports for you (other software packages are available). They look very similar to the accounts…

I have been working with Cooper Golding since 2018, supporting owner Paula Golby manage her growing business as she moved form strength to strength as a result of her focus on high quality, tailored recruitment services. With multiple customers and revenue streams…

It’s finally here: the 4th of July, the day the reawakening begins! There’s been all sorts of work to adapt operations to make them “Covid secure” – hand sanitiser, face masks, physical distancing, etc. But as well as the practical/ physical preparations, reopening is…

How do you make a plan for the rest of this year? If the last six months have taught us anything it’s that we can’t predict the next twist in the story. So is planning a pointless waste of time? This is the (polite) argument that I’ve been engaged in this week while I…

“When it rains, look for rainbows. When it is dark, look for the stars. When it’s raining and dark… you should take care to look where you’re going and consider whether you’re still heading in the right direction” Courtesy of Oscar Wilde, but paraphrased during a…

With CBILS, Bounce Back Loans, VAT deferrals, grants etc there may be more cash in the bank now than ever before and your cashflow is sorted for the next couple months. But what happens after that? Lockdown has probably helped the bank balance with customers paying…

Usually management accounts look very similar to the set of accounts that you get at the end of the tax year, but on a more regular basis – usually monthly – and in more detail. Most cloud accounting software produces all these reports, so surely that’s enough? In…

At the time of writing the lockdown has been in force for 6 weeks, and in that time there have been a myriad of support packages (and revisions) announced by the government in an attempt to keep businesses in business. It has been a constant struggle to try to stay up…

As a follow up on my CBILS advice I want to share the cashflow checklist that I produced for my clients (and for myself!) A cashflow forecast is the best way to see how much help you need at the moment (and you will be asked for one if you intend to apply for help…

In the news recently there have been horror stories about how difficult it’s proving for small businesses to access the government’s CBILS business support scheme. Here we look at how to get the best result in any funding application, and particularly the Covid-19…

Yesterday I was lucky enough to be at the NatWestBoost event in Exeter with Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones of The Black Farmer. It was a fantastic morning full of inspiration and really good advice – but what struck me was Wilfred’s take on financing his business. With an…

I set myself a couple of challenges with my New Years Resolutions this year: firstly, to reduce my carbon footprint and secondly to use my time more effectively. So the first change to make on the way to achieving these goals was to switch the car for the train where…

Mission statements are just corporate waffle, about “empowering”, “finding new paradigms” and “evangelising findings”. Right? Recently I have been working in developing Business Plans with two (very different) clients. As part of my preparation for this I started…