| Trouble-shooter - BUSINESS CHECK LIST #101 ! |
| 1.
Have you developed clear objectives (with Numbers
and Dates) both short term and long term with numbers to achieve and dates
for completion? 2. Are these goals quantified in terms of earnings and the necessary sales to achieve this? 3. Have you built in review periods for your goals and can you be flexible? 4. Have you specific goals to increased market share, growth or change product mix? 5. Are your goals realistic? 6. Turn over is vanity, profit is sanity - are you profitable - do your current sales cover your break-even figure? 7. Have you considered the significance of your goals relative to your capital base? 8. Have you analysed both the strengths and weaknesses of your business? 9. Have you analysed management expertise? 10. Have you identified the limiting factors to your business? |
| 11.
An organisation chart shows what the business does
- Do you have an organisation chart? How will the business look in, say,
three years time? 12. Are their any gaps in key areas of management, sales, production, finance or personnel? 13. Do you have succession, recruitment and training plans? 14. Can your team cope with expansion of the business? 15. Is each job clearly defined with position contracts? 16. Have you delegated routine tasks as far as possible - do you let go and let them get on with it? 17. Are managers responsible for specific areas of responsibility? 18. Are their clearly defined lines of reporting? 19. Do you co-ordinate projects with a team responsibility? |
|
Remember the objective is to delight the customer! 20.
Have you built a sales machine to hit specific sales
targets? |
| 28.
Do you plan production levels to link in with export
and sales? 29. Does your business have the physical production capability to meet planned sales? 30. Are the premises adequate? 31. Do you have job cards setting out raw material requirements and estimating labour/machine hours for specific products? 32. Do you plan for effective production runs rather than piecework? 33. Do you monitor labour efficiency? 34. Does your production controller liaise with your buyer to ensure an adequate, but not excessive, raw material stock? 35. Do you monitor wastage of materials? 36. Do you monitor defective goods returned? |
|
Tom Edge says: Always charge as much as the market will stand! 37.
Are costs estimated first to give a guideline to
the price-setters? |
| 47.
Do you know the lead-time for your products? 48. Are stocks kept to a minimum acceptable level for operational needs? 49. The 80/20 rule can be useful in stock control; that is, Do 20 per cent of your stock items represent 80 per cent of the total stock value? 50. Do you have an effective stock control system? 51. Do you carry out quarterly physical stocktaking as a measure of control? 52. Do you have a monthly review of stock holding? 53. Do you frequently get quotes from new suppliers to check on purchasing prices? 54. Can suppliers carry stock and make more frequent deliveries to you? Just in Time? 55. Are you careful not to buy in large quantities just to obtain a discount? 56. Do you have separate stock level guides for raw materials/work in progress and finished goods? 57. Do you dispose of obsolete stock? 58. Are you insured? |
| 59.
Is it your policy to take credit for as long as possible? 60. Do you take discounts when appropriate? 61. Do you review monthly creditors by age analysis? 62. Do you keep a close check on amounts owing to major suppliers? |
| 63.
Do you nominate specific responsibility? 64. Do you review monthly, using age analysis? 65. Do you check on new customers for credit-worthiness? 66. Do you have fixed terms of trade? 67. Are invoices dispatched promptly? 68. Do you send out statements regularly after the month end? 69. Do you monitor your bad-debt experience? 70. Do you have a 'chase' letter system for outstanding debts? 71. Do you take firm action against late payers? 72. Can you get progress payments on large orders? 73. Have you considered credit risk insurance? 74. Do you 'code' key accounts? |
| 75.
Do you monitor monthly against budget? 76. Do you closely monitor by analysis your major overhead items? 77. Do you set overhead costs targets to individual departments where appropriate? 78. Do you know what your minimum sales must be to cover annual overheads? |
| 79.
Do you draw up an annual budget and monitor monthly? 80. Do you really need that expensive piece of plant? 81. Is it for more than one particularly attractive order? 82. Can pay back of income, etc., justify the outlay of cost? 83. Have you considered leasing as an alternative? |
| 84.
Have you projected a balance sheet for the current
trading period? 85. Do you look at structuring finance/grants available? |
| 86.
Is this monitored on a monthly/quarterly basis? 87. Do you nominate someone responsible for monitoring? 88. Do you 'flex' the budget if circumstances change radically? 89. Is the sales level being reached to cover break-even costs? 90. Are you comparing results to last year's performance? |
| 91.
Have you included all cash items? 92. Are you monitoring monthly? 93. Do you reconcile with bank statement? |
| 94.
Do you know if you are a cash consumer or generator? 95. Do you know what percentage of funds are generated form trading as opposed to external finance? |
| 96.
Is your break-even point being monitored? 97. What is your net profit as a percentage of sales? 98. Do you monitor gross profit as a percentage of sales? 99. Do you know your return on capital employed? 100. Do you monitor gearing (debt/equity)? 101. Do you monitor working capital requirement to sales? |
Tom Edge says:
Asking for help shows the first sign of business maturity.
The second sign of maturity is working to budgets.
The third sign is having an organisation chart.
The fourth sign is having operating manuals.
To Contact Tom Personally - Click Here
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