A 90 Day Plan you will actually use
Most business plans do not get used. They are written in a burst of energy and ambition, often at the start of a new year or a new financial period, and then quietly find their way into a corner or drawer to collect dust as the daily demands of running the business takes over. By […]
Purpose-Driven Business in Real life
Throughout this series we have covered the PCP Method in some depth. We have explored the Purpose pillar, the Clarity pillar and the Performance pillar separately, and we have described what the framework looks like structurally. But what does it look like when all three pillars are working together in a real business. In this […]
Your Pricing Is Too Low. Fix It and Protect Your Profit
Pricing is the single most powerful lever in your business. It boosts profitability without needing more hours, more staff or more clients. Increase your prices by just 10 percent on R1.2 million in revenue and you add R120 000 to your bottom line. That is real money without any more effort. Most South African service […]
Why performance management starts with your balance sheet
Most South African SME owners think about performance in terms of revenue. Did we hit our sales target this month? Are we growing year on year? Is the business busier than it was last year? Revenue is a starting point, although it is only one dimension of business performance. A business can grow its revenue […]
The Xero Dashboard. Start here always
Most Xero users open the platform to do a specific task — send an invoice, capture a bill, run a report — and then close it again. The dashboard, which is the first thing you see every time you log in, gets glanced at and scrolled past. That is a missed opportunity. The Xero dashboard […]
Hidden Costs – how they are killing your business
Hidden costs accumulate quietly in the background, month after month, never large enough to trigger alarm in any individual month, increases often blown off as inflation or the usual annual increase.
What your management accounts is really telling you — and how to use it
Disturbing trend Most South African business owners receive their monthly reports or management accounts, received from their accountant, glance at the bottom line number and move on. If it is a profit, they feel relieved. If it is a loss, they feel anxious. Either way, they rarely dig deeper. This is an expensive habit. What […]
Financial Goals: How to do it correctly
Every January or at least at the start of a new financial year, South African business owners and business owners around the world, sit down and write goals. Review revenue targets. Predict growth percentages. Explore new market entries. Start the search for staff to hire. Consider new systems to build. But because goal setting without […]
A plain-language guide to reading your profit and loss statement
There is a document that your accountant prepares for you every year — possibly every month — that has the power to transform the way you run your business. It tells you whether you are actually making money. It tells you where your costs are going. It tells you whether your business model is working. […]
Business Purpose, the decision Filter
Every business owner I have ever worked with could tell me what their business does. Very few could tell me — clearly, honestly and without hesitation — why it exists. These sound like the same question. They are not. What your business does is a description of your activity. Why it exists is a statement […]