Imagine this…. you have invested in new sales people, new products, a new marketing campaign or maybe you have continued to grow at a steady pace using all areas of the business to support you. Business couldn’t be better, sales are great, cash is great, demand is putting an excitable stress on the company…..
How do you know that it will always be this way? Is there a way to find the confidence that actually things are now on the up and will remain that way, as opposed to enjoying the good times but always having that nagging feeling at the back of your mind .. what if….is there something I don’t know.
Yes there is a way and it’s called accurate forecasting. That is, understanding your business and market well enough to forecast the future based against the analysis of its past peaks and troughs. It’s all about investing in the detail of reviewing historical sales data, market trends, economic statistics and external factors to help predict both your short and long term business performance.
Spending time on understanding the detail behind your business figures and understanding the relevant market factors will give you automatic confidence to:
- prepare for, and maximise on, seasonal peaks and troughs;
- determine your actual cost of sale;
- know when to order new stock, systems and materials;
- know when is the best time to launch a new product
- know when is it the right time to develop a new product
- know whether you need additional staff, when you should hire them and indeed wether you can afford them.
It is very important to get your figures as accurate as possible and when embarking on an exercise like this for the first time it would be worth getting some advice from someone who has experience.
A good accountant will be able to advise you of the right information to use to get your figures collated at the start, they will also be able to guide you on how to build and read your forecast and ensure you use the best methods that work for you.
Here at Keen Dicey Grover we know the importance of taking the time to talk through the detail of business forecasts. Equally we appreciate that every business is different. By either guiding business owners through building their own forecasts or doing the forecasting on their behalf and explaining the results, we pride ourselves in ensuring that our business owners feel informed and confident about the numbers behind their business.
We understand what it feels like to be uncertain about the future. By sharing our experience and expertise we do our very best to alleviate the worry that comes with that uncertainty.
Keen Dicey Grover.
We care……we really care.
