Secrets Revealed: How To Look At Your Finances Decoded For External Best Practices Checkpoints

You will start with a fiscal check-up where we take your business temperature and see what shape you are in for your corporate external aspects. To break all the rules, we will describe your financial ratios in terms of your body, with quotes below each factor that are a whole lot more fun to read.

EXTERNAL EXAM
1. What does your balance sheet really tell about the health of your business?

-Don't shoot the messenger. Anonymous
-Earnings and cash flow are two of the pillars of a successful company. James Pardoe, author of How Buffett Does It
-Like enemies, weaknesses are more dangerous when they are quietly corrupting your work and life. Marcus Buckingham (British motivational speaker, developed the Strengths Management Concept)

2. How tall are you?

-It is not who you know, it is who knows you. Jeffrey Gitomer (owner of TrainOne, Inc.- focus on sales, customer loyalty, and personal development)
-Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude. Zig Ziglar (motivational speaker)
-Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing. Abraham Lincoln (16th President of the United States)

3. Are you still growing or have you started shrinking?

-The best and fastest way to learn a sport is to watch and imitate a champion. Jean-Claude Killy (triple Olympic Champion skier, now in sports management)
-We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are. Max Depree (author of Leadership is an Art)
-It takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. Warren Buffett (American investor, businessman, and philanthropist, he is one of the most successful investors in history, the primary shareholder and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, and in 2008 was ranked by Forbes as the richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of approximately $62 billion)

4. Can you find the cash to finance your next project without increasing your blood pressure?

-Growth without prior planning can be as fun as a hard kick in the stomach. Tim Berry (business planning expert; founder and president of Palo Alto Software)
-If you would like to fill your corporate bank accounts, refocus and redouble your efforts on the people that fill them first: your present customers. Jeffrey Gitomer (author of The Little Red Book of Selling)
-Lack of money is no obstacle. Lack of an idea is an obstacle. Ken Hakuta (American inventor; Dr. Fad- creator of the Wacky Wall Walker)

5. Are you a worthy competitor?

-When we are truly passionate about something, it is contagious. Keith Ferrazzi (networking/marketing guru, author of Never Eat Alone)
-Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. T. S. Eliot (20th century poet, playwright, and literary critic)
- Competitors will eventually copy an innovative idea for a product or service, but an organization of highly motivated people is very hard to duplicate. Bill George (Harvard Business School professor; author of Authentic Leadership)

6. Who are your top 10 customers? - - - Time is up! If you can not name at least 5, you are in trouble. And what about their affects on your balance sheet? Just like good and bad cholesterol, there are good and bad customers. Your best customer, like your favorite food, may actually be a drain on your business.

-The best way to hold onto your clients or customers is to please them. And the best way to please clients or customers is to give them not their moneys worth, but more than their moneys worth. Bob Bly Recession-Proof Business Strategies (2009) (Robert W. Bly- author and copywriting guru)
-Brand loyalty and employee loyalty are both real assets, even if not reflected on balance sheets and income statements. Jeffrey Pfeffer (author, Stanford Graduate School of Business Professor of Organizational Behavior)
-The smartest marketers profit from protecting their customers privacy, not violating it. Evan I. Schwartz (Internet expert; author of Webonomics: Nine Essential Principles for Growing Your Business on the World Wide Web)

7. How do others rate your performance- - - as a business? Are you a Lone Ranger or do your people feel they can adequately support you and your decisions?

-You take people as far as they will go, not as far as you would like them to go. Jeanette Rankin (first woman elected to the US House of Representatives, and first female member of the Congress, a lifelong pacifist)
-Do not push your personnel; inspire them to follow you. Dan Carrison and Rod Walsh, authors of Business Leadership The Marine Corps Way (1999)
-Price is what you pay. Value is what you get. Warren Buffett (American investor, businessman, and philanthropist, he is one of the most successful investors in history, the primary shareholder and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, and in 2008 was ranked by Forbes as the richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of approximately $62 billion)

8. Do vendors welcome you with open arms and confidence, or do they run and hide?

-You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Anonymous
-A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well. Jeff Bezos (founder, president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Amazon.com)
-Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. Bill Gates (Microsoft co-founder)

9. Who is your co-pilot? If you die tomorrow, will your company fold?

-Build leadership capacity incrementally.
-Upgrade corporate training so that it becomes an industry-wide credential. (above quotes from Dan Carrison and Rod Walsh Business Leadership The Marine Corps Way (1999))
-Effective leaders provide for succession. Alan Axelrod (author of history (Colonial America), business and management)


Unearth the hidden risks that could topple your company, so you can use Best Practices for Long-Term Business Health to increase the likelihood of reaching your long term personal and personal goals.

Again, the good news is that if you already have any of these systems in place (strategic planning, quarterly budgeting, risk management, operations review, entire enterprise risk management, risk assessment, process improvement, performance management, or contingency planning), you have foundation blocks to improve your risk management capabilities by using some of the steps above.