Posts Tagged ‘business improvement’

Stress proof your business and your life

Friday, August 27th, 2010

Owning and running a business can be incredibly stressful. So we have decided to do something about it by writing a book called “Stress proof your business and your life”.

 You can find it on Amazon at £12.99 – but you are welcome to a copy with our compliments.

 But please don’t be put off by its title, since it is categorically not only for people who are stressed. In fact, one of the key benefits from reading it is that you’ll get dozens of excellent ideas for putting a great deal of extra cash into your business and personal bank accounts.

 There are four parts to the book.

 Part 1, Stress proofing the business stuff, looks at what people can do to reduce and prevent the stress caused by their business and its financial situation. And it provides simple yet effective solutions to common challenges such as:

  • Not making enough profit
  • Running out of cash and other similar cashflow problems
  • Being forced to work more than you want to
  • Having too many things on your to-do list
  • Too much depending on you, and too many things that can only be done by you
  • Not getting the right life-work balance
  • Not having the information you need to make sensible decisions
  • Losing too much of what you earn to the taxman
  • Other people, especially customers and your employees, behaving unreasonably or unfairly

 Part 2, Stress proofing the money stuff, looks at what people can do to reduce and prevent the stress caused by their personal financial situation.

 In these first two parts much of the emphasis is on strengthening the financial and business fundamentals – since they are so often the primary sources of stress and anxiety for business leaders. But strengthening them is also extremely worthwhile for people who aren’t suffering from stress.

 Part 3, Stress proofing the personal stuff, broadens the discussion by explaining how to reduce and prevent the stress caused by the other things going on in people’s lives.

 Finally, Part 4 brings it all together into a practical action plan.

How to get your FREE copy 

So, would you like a copy?  We would be happy to send readers of the blog a complimentary copy….all you need to do is drop us an e mail or call the office on 01422 365981 and we’ll get one sent straight to you.

Working on your business – Whats that all about?

Friday, June 11th, 2010

Here at Accountancy Extra we are huge fans of Michael Gerber and the book E Myth Revisited.  So much so, that we provide new clients with a copy of the book.

In the book, one of the concepts discussed is “working on your business, rather than in it”, but what does that really mean?

Working on the business includes activities such as

  • Networking meetings
  • Researching a new product
  • Working on your cashflow
  • Putting together a business plan
  • Reviewing your gross margins, or
  • Systemising your business

How often do we start to do one of the above and then abandon it as a customer calls wanting something, or we need to attend to an urgent e mail from a client?

I often think about running a business a bit like preparing for the World Cup.  A top class footballer doesn’t just turn up 10 minutes before kick off and expect to be brilliant on the pitch.  Instead they invest years of training for their big moment, and, once they’ve made it into the international team, they continue training in between matches.  If they don’t, their performance will not improve – in fact it’ll probably go backwards and their place in the team will be taken by another player.

So what does that mean for your business?

Well firstly, it’d be great if you could do your preparation before starting your business.  Sadly, this is rarely possible.  However, constant investment in improving your business should be high on your list of priorities, if for no other reason than to stop you slipping backwards!  A lot of business owners start off with the right intentions and then let them slip as they get busier, i.e. they revert to Technician Mode.

You should set time aside each week to work on your business, think about the footballer in training each day.

Working “on” your business is exactly that – setting time aside each week to do all of the things mentioned above and more. Taking the time to look at how your business is performing and how you can improve. The main reasons why most Business Plans and Budgets don’t work for you is because they have no clear action plan broken down into what you need to do on a monthly and weekly basis (We’ll cover this area more in future posts).

 How much time have you scheduled into your diary in the next few weeks to look at how your business is performing?