Build a business plan, manage cash flow, get time management under control, learn HR best practices, drive cost control, master negotiations - it’s all here.

Each chapter offers ideas and practical ways to improve your bottom line.

A business novice will find clear direction and easy navigation through the chapters using checklists. The business veteran will find a fresh approach to possibly improve upon what they have done for years.

Build a strategic plan with the guidance in this book, including running a SWOT analysis, calculating profit, forecasting revenue, and creating a budget. You will find guidance to identify the right targets for bottom line improvements. I present practical ways to manage and improve your cash flow and manage accounts receivables. You will find useful solutions to build a solid foundation for profitability, reduce overhead, and improve your company’s bottom line, all in record time.

Bigger Pie - The most basic concepts to grasp in order to improve the bottom line are to ask for more, make the ‘pie’ bigger, and create win/win situations for your company and your business partners.

Why focus on the bottom line when there is so much emphasis on the top line? Revenue from any given sale may be a onetime, top line benefit, while you may be able to reap bottom line savings generated from ideas in this book that go to the bottom line year after year. This is the ‘multiplier factor’.

Many business books focus on the top line. “Grow revenue and grow the company, right? Grow the company and make more money, right?” I propose a counter-intuitive way to drive a company to become more profitable and sustainable. Rather than keeping the focus primarily on increasing the top line, consider the benefits of keeping more of the money that flows through the company on the bottom line.

Have you ever had a day fly by, and you and your team were busy every minute, but you did not finish the work you had set out to complete that day? It is easy to let the day, or more, get away from you, but you do have a choice in the matter. Excellent time management skills can be learned and infused throughout your company.

Carefully organizing your workday to get the most essential work done on time isn’t just important, it is what makes the difference between being more profitable and continuing to experience stress, rushed decisions, and missed deadlines.

Checklist:

 Manage your meetings.

 Avoid meeting overload.

 Run productive meetings.

 Set a meeting agenda.

 Follow-up on meeting outcomes.

 Take ownership.

 Unclutter schedules.

 Consider opportunity costs.

 Employ a monthly project list.

 Control randomization.

 Cycle back.

Create an advantage and take control of the future of your company by carefully crafting a strategic plan that reflects all the realities of your situation. Visualize what is possible, document the plan, and focus on only the most valuable work.

Strategic Planning Overview-Key benefits of developing a strategic plan include the following:

• Identification of company strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

• Identification of cost-reduction opportunities

• Identification of revenue opportunities

• Identification of ‘quick wins’

• Resource allocation to focus on the most valuable work and avoid wasted time, energy, and money

• Prevention of cash flow crises

• Randomization minimized with improved time management

• Tactical nimbleness incorporated into your company culture

• Plans in place to avoid pitfalls and respond to opportunities and setbacks

• Engagement of staff and business partners with a cohesive strategic vision to increase collaboration and generate positive results

• Visualization and documentation of the strategic goals

It is impossible for one person to know everything about a company unless it is very small. The SWOT analysis, conducted with the right team, will help you understand more about what is working well and what needs attention within your company.

With that information in hand, you can develop a useful strategic plan, and from the strategic plan you can derive the tactical steps to improve the company’s stability and profitability.

A SWOT analysis identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to your company to help you decide where to put your time and energy to improve your business.

SWOT Analysis Checklist:

 SWOT definitions

 Get real

 SWOT Analysis: Part 1- STRENGTHS

 SWOT Analysis: Part 2- WEAKNESSES

 SWOT Analysis: Part 3- OPPORTUNITIES

 SWOT Analysis: Part 4- THREATS

 Next steps

 Do it again

To better understand the financial performance of your company over time we will focus on the ‘Key Financial Indicators’ of revenue, gross profit, net profit margin, and your bottom line. In this chapter, I will also show you how to determine your actual costs for each product or service your company sells. Track the Key Indicators over time and you will know sooner than later if all is well or if there is urgent work needed to sustain your profitability.

Checklist - Understand Your Key Financial Indicators and Product Contributions to Your Bottom Line

 Definitions and purpose of each key indicator.

 Consider expert help.

 Calculate revenue.

 Calculate gross profit.

 Calculate net profit margin.

 Calculate your bottom line.

 Understand the contributions of each of your products and/or services to the bottom line.

 Next Steps.

 Compare your profit to industry standards.

 Update your strategic plan.

 Prepare to attract investors or apply for a line of credit or loan.

Understanding how your company makes a profit is as fundamental as it gets. A revenue forecast can illuminate how the company will make money, and this understanding will influence every business decision you make in the future. Creating a realistic strategic plan includes creating a realistic budget. One of the key components of the budget is the revenue forecast.

Checklist to Create a Revenue Forecast:

 Build educated estimates of future revenue.

 Not too hot and not too cold.

 What is a revenue forecast?

 Why create a revenue forecast?

 How to create a revenue forecast.

 Keep the revenue forecast current and relevant.

A budget is an essential tool for operating your business in a fiscally responsible way. Your budget is your financial roadmap for operating the company more efficiently by planning expenditures and documenting your forecasted revenue. A budget will help you keep control of your spending, and you can be more prepared by having plans for contingencies in place.

Expense and Capital Purchases Budget Checklist:

 Why create a business budget?

 Consider engaging expert help.

 Find your sweet spot.

 Create a budget.

 Develop your revenue assumptions.

 Determine fixed, variable, and discretionary expenses.

 Compile your assumptions.

 Calculate your variances (actual numbers vs. budgeted numbers.)

 Plan capital purchases.

Develop a cash flow analysis to reveal projected shortages of the cash required to carry on day-to-day operations. Advanced notice of when a cash crunch is likely to occur will allow you the opportunity to shift strategies, correct course, and avoid the deficit.

Cash Flow Analysis Checklist:

 Consider expert help.

 Why create a cash flow analysis?

 A guide to help you work through the cash flow analysis.

 Understand how to use the cash flow analysis to protect your company.

 21 strategies to prevent or manage cash shortages.

Identify your best opportunities to improve your company’s bottom line and focus, focus, focus.

Review your strategic plan and decide which projects deserve your time and energy to meet your goals.

Target Practice Checklist:

 Identify target projects.

 Play out the likely scenarios.

 Determine the desired outcome of the project.

 Run a pilot program for more significant projects.

 Create visibility and buy-in for the targeted projects.

 Measure results and regroup to target next projects.

There are many expansive and complicated ways to manage projects, both big and small. Sometimes you simply need to keep everyone focused to hit your deadline.

Add a large dose of planning and organizing to your project and the results will be greatly improved.

A less formal approach can work in some situations, but moving ahead without a plan is for amateurs.

Simplified Project Management Checklist:

 Create project scopes to define the purpose and value of the projects. Make clear why this project has been chosen to move forward.

 Create a simple project schedule.

 Create a list of the tasks and milestones of the project.

 Break the tasks into small bites to measure progress more easily.

 Define the owner of each task.

 Set up the list in priority order.

 Set a reasonable date for completion of each task.

 Add a column for status to the schedule.

 Share the project list with your team members.

 Update the list every day.

 Stay nimble – If you hit a brick wall, change course, find another path, or move to another project rather than invest too much time in one project that’s going nowhere fast.

Set your company apart from the pack by taking your vendor and service provider management to a new level of expertise.

Improve your bottom line by applying any or all of the ideas in this chapter to your business. You will see a powerful shift in the benefits you realize from your vendor relations in your day to day operations. And you will develop stronger, mutually beneficial, relationships with those business partners.

Everybody wins.

Vendor Management Checklist

 Leverage the honeymoon period with vendors and service providers.

 Make a bigger pie: Three simple ways to make the ‘pie’ bigger so everybody wins.

 Take advantage of price control opportunities.

 Negotiate on much more than the price for the best outcome.

 Create structure using well-defined vendor management documents.

Negotiations can build stronger relationships with your business partners. You don’t have to go to the negotiating table with an intention of being confrontational to win. With some forethought, both parties can win and be satisfied with the outcome. Everybody wins when entering negotiations with an intent to be ethical and fair, and to add value for both parties.

Negotiations Checklist:

 Lay the groundwork for successful negotiations.

 Price isn’t the only consideration.

 Writing on the wall.

 Focus on points of negotiation other than price.

 Battle vendor fatigue.

 Challenge a new account manager arriving on the scene.

 Leave the door open.

 Negotiate service contracts.

 Negotiate contract renewal.

 Negotiate pricing.

A streamlined and efficient accounts receivable (A/R) process positively affects marketing, sales, customer service, and overall operations. Efficient A/R management creates stable cash flow.

You may be managing an accounting department, or you may be handling A/R yourself. No matter where the responsibility lies, it is an essential function in your company.

A/R Management Checklist

 Keep customer records current and accurate.

 Establish and document a billing dispute policy and procedure.

 Establish clear A/R policies and procedures.

 Optimize the collection process.

 Conduct proactive and regular account reviews.

 Apply customer payments quickly and accurately.

 Uncover the root causes of late payments.

You can set the company up for success by building a team who is focused on improving the bottom line. How do you get more goods, services, and resources, both inside and outside of your company, and pay less? Changing the ethos of a company so that each person comes to expect to pay less and get more requires a lot of convincing.

Checklist to build a team to improve your bottom line:

 Teach your staff to seek mutual benefit.

 Tap into surprising opportunities.

 Start the behavioral shift – a sample script.

 Get your team involved.

There is nothing more powerful than a cohesive and effective team of employees all striving to improve the bottom line of your company.

Improve your bottom line by taking the steps to hire the right people, retrain current employees, and exit weak or misplaced employees. Restructure the organizational reporting hierarchy to clarify and strengthen management’s role.

Staffing Strategies Checklist

 Less is more

 The yellow chair

 Rethink the resources

 Step-by-step guidelines to see your staffing opportunities with fresh eyes

 Understand the human resources required to get the work done

 Taking a hard look at your current staff

 The acid test to help you quickly evaluate your current employees

 The new paradigm

 Steps to reimage your organizational chart

 Exclude the excess

 Insource vs. outsource

There is nothing more valuable in your company than the people who bring their intelligence, energy, and focus to the job.

You can improve your bottom line by doing everything in your power to maximize the synergy and contributions of each person working alongside you. The following checklist will give you some ideas to do exactly that in your company:

Human Resource Mining Checklist

 Set high expectations – an IQ test.

 Provide a carefully crafted employee manual.

 Leverage opportunities to test and develop untapped talent – opportunity knocks.

 Consider adding an employee loan program.

 Create incentive programs that drive results.

Take the time to incentivize each employee, and you will see amazing results. This means more than just setting up a fair salary, benefit, and bonus plan. This is about finding that little bit of extra motivation and recognition for people that will make a positive difference to your profitability.

Study compensation throughout your company using the tools presented in this chapter and create alignment between compensation and contributions to the profitability of your company.

Checklist for Compensation Strategies

 Create a salary structure worksheet.

 Take variable rates into consideration.

 Plan the compensation transitions.

 Create strategies to realign compensation of overpaid employees.

 Create strategies to realign compensation of underpaid employees.

 Consider how Amazon does it.

 Create alignment.

 Implement reward systems.

 Deliver unexpected and random rewards.

 Establish performance goals for incentive programs.

 Promote retention.

 Design stairway goals to meet your transitional plan.

The long-term success of a company is contingent upon having strong contributors in every position. To remain competitive and survive an ever-changing economy, it is essential that hiring decisions are deliberate, strategic, and forward-looking. The cost of employee turnover can be significant.

This chapter introduces many innovative and easily-executed ways to control hiring cost while leveraging opportunities to find ideally-suited employees.

Hiring Quality Talent and Expense Reduction Checklist – proven methods to improve the hiring process and minimize hiring expenses:

 Define job requirements.

 Create detailed job descriptions.

 Mine for candidates internally.

 Leverage internal references.

 Hire from unexpected places.

 Use temporary employment agencies.

 Tap into university and trade school’ internships.

 Use social media as a recruiting tool.

 Gather leads from trade associations.

 Use online recruiting resources.

 Place a small ‘help wanted’ ad with a big impact.

 Pay attention to first impressions.

 Focus on chemistry.

 Tap into your connections.

Don’t assume ‘fixed’ overhead is truly fixed. You can build a better bottom line by lowering your overhead cost, and these savings go straight to the bottom line.

Focus is essential for this project. Order the list of fixed overhead by the total annual expense for each item, highest to lowest. Now drop the bottom half off the list and focus on the remaining items. Work through them, from highest amount to lowest, to get the greatest return for your efforts.

Checklist to Reduce Fixed Overhead

 Audit your bills.

 Review contracts and agreements.

 Shop for communications/IT/webhosting cost reductions.

 Manage employee benefits costs.

 Cut insurance expenses.

 Contain inventory carrying costs.

 Consider lease vs. buy.

 Manage rent/mortgage expense.

 Decide if you can sell it.

 Scrutinize service costs.

 Control shipping expenses.

 Leverage subleasing opportunities.

 Consider outsourcing.

 Reduce utilities expense.

Marketing your products or services with a limited budget can be tricky, but it is vital work. Promote your company on a shoestring by taking advantage of the low and zero-cost marketing ideas in this chapter.

There is only so much time, energy, focus, and money to go around. To build a better bottom line, focus on only the most valuable marketing work while keeping costs in line.

Checklist for Low and Zero-cost Marketing

 Control your budget.

 Train your employees who interact with your clients to be marketers of your brand.

 Build vendor relations.

 Optimize your website.

 Focus on search engine optimization (SEO).

 Develop a contact database.

 Let your customers do the talking.

 Consider using a PR firm.

 Use your company for good.

 Measure your results, and then adjust.

Internet and telecommunications hardware, service providers, support plans, and equipment and software maintenance can be one of the largest expenses facing many businesses today. It is also one of the most critical. It is essential that your company is always connected and always accessible.

There are three important considerations when deciding to tackle this issue – efficiency, quality, and cost. It is possible to control your costs while staying connected to the world.

Checklist to Reduce Your Company’s Internet and Telecommunications Expenses

 Know what you are paying for.

 Review your contracts annually.

 Consider new solutions.

 Stay flexible.

 Identify and eliminate overlaps.

If you put in the work to reduce your annual shipping expense, that savings can go straight to the bottom line year after year. And the savings you have negotiated becomes a higher and higher dollar amount as your company grows.

Checklist of Tactics to Lower Shipping Costs

 Question the base rates.

 Open a business account.

 Join shipper rewards programs.

 Pass it on, or not.

 Consider self-insurance.

 Recover shipping costs for late shipments.

 Consider shipper-supplied packaging and flat-rate shipping.

 Decide if size matters.

 Consider mailers.

 Review periodically to keep costs in check.

Like any other expense, travel needs to be managed. You will maximize what you can do with the dollars you spend, and reward miles you redeem, when you keep the bottom line in mind as you plan company travel.

Although travel may be essential to support the top line of your company, it still needs to be controlled to protect your bottom line.

Checklist for Travel Cost Reduction and ROI Improvement

 Establish a travel policy.

 Appoint a travel manager.

 Avoid the ‘good buddy travel plan’.

 Focus on targeted travel.

 Choose in-person and/or virtual trips