Your Guide to Business Strategies in Finance

When it comes to running a business, there can be different options for how to best handle the necessary financial strategy. Yet, whether you are a well-seasoned professional or a new small business owner, having a successful financial business strategy is the key to success in business. There are five fundamental steps for successful financial business strategy, consider adding these to your current strategy or using them as a tool for evaluation.

5 Tips for Developing a Killer Business Strategy

1. Get Some Perspective. The first step to creating a successful financial business strategy is to gain some perspective. Take a break from the office, walk your dog, go for a drive or simply get out and grab a cup of coffee; but make sure you reflect on these questions:
   • What is my overall objective?
   • Where am I now? 
   • Where do I want to be?
   • How do I get there?  By evaluating your company honestly, you will be able to begin developing a strategy based on reasonable goals leading up to your overall objectives!
     
2. Develop your strategy. Your strategy should be comprised of specific and measurable steps and tasks that will serve as a type of guided feedback to help achieve your goals. An example of this could be focusing on decreasing loss, suggestive sales, and new customer acquisition in order to increase revenue. 
   
   
3.  Set Reachable Goals. Goals are a valuable part of an effective strategy because they provide the motivation needed to continue along the path to your overall objectives. You want your goals to push you, but a good goal is also achievable and should not end up leading to discouragement. 
   
   
4. Re-evaluate your Strategy. In order for your strategy to be successful, you need to regularly check that your strategy is aligned with your end objectives and make necessary adjustments. When reviewing your plan ask yourself these important questions:
   • What goals am I meeting?
   • How am I meeting them and how well is it working?
   • Am I satisfied with these results or could I do better?
   • What goals have I yet to meet?
   • Do I need to adjust my game plan to meet them? We recommend that you check in with your strategy monthly because it gives you an accurate view of how well it is working. As a minimum, you should be reviewing your financial reports every six months and comparing them against previous months – take notes of trends, expenses, and overall debt load.  
     
5. Keep Clean Financial Records. When re-working your company’s financial strategy it is imperative that you keep clean, up-to-date
   financial records. We recommend using these three financial statements (at a minimum) to benchmark and track your company’s progress:
   • Cash-flow Statement: How much money do you need now and in the future to improve your businesses’ financial strategy? Where will this money come from? What steps do you need to take for it to be made available?
   • Income Statement: Including fixed and variable expenses, sales forecasts, and margins.
   • Balance Sheet: Including your companies assets and liabilities. Every successful business has a sound financial business strategy; that’s what makes them successful. We understand that it can be daunting to tackle alone, but it doesn’t have to be. Steven Lissner & Company can work alongside you to help you make sure that you are on track to accomplish your objectives!