Uncategorized Archives - The CFO Centre

Navigating Your Business Growth Journey: Where Does Your Company Stand?

January 15, 2024 by lauramills

As the business landscape constantly evolves, understanding where your company stands on its business growth journey is crucial for shaping future strategies. In a recent business survey, we asked 264 participants to assess their business’s growth stage. The results provide valuable insights into the diverse stages businesses find themselves in. Let’s delve into these findings and explore the implications for businesses at various growth stages.

Scaling: The Power of Momentum (54%)

With over half of the respondents indicating their businesses are currently scaling, it’s evident that many companies are experiencing significant growth and expansion. Scaling is an exciting phase that requires careful planning, resource allocation, and strategic decision-making. It’s essential for businesses in this stage to maintain their momentum while effectively managing risks and seizing new opportunities.

Insight: Scaling businesses should focus on streamlining operations, investing in scalable technologies, nurturing their workforce, and building strong customer relationships to sustain their growth trajectory. The CFO Centre can help by adding an experienced part-time CFO (Chief Financial Officer) resource to your team to help you plan and implement the right strategy for your growth goals.

Market Leaders: Maintaining the Edge (18%)

Being a market leader is an accomplishment that comes with its own set of challenges. These businesses have successfully carved out a substantial share in their respective industries. However, complacency can be detrimental. Market leaders must continuously innovate, adapt to changing market dynamics, and stay ahead of the competition while nurturing their existing customer base.

Insight: Market leaders should embrace a culture of innovation, invest in research and development, explore new markets, and consistently deliver exceptional customer experiences to maintain their edge in an ever-evolving business environment. Our part-time CFOs could be the edge you need to set you apart from your competitors – find out how.

Early Stage: Nurturing Potential (15%)

A significant number of respondents identified their businesses as being in the early stage. This stage is characterised by laying the groundwork for future growth. Early-stage businesses need to focus on refining their business models, building a strong foundation, attracting talent, securing funding, and establishing a solid customer base.

Insight: Early-stage businesses should prioritise market research, develop a compelling value proposition, build strategic partnerships, and leverage digital marketing tools to establish a strong foothold in their target markets.

Preparing for Exit: Strategic Transitions (9%)

Some businesses indicated that they were preparing for an exit. This stage involves strategic decision-making regarding potential mergers, acquisitions, or divestments. It requires careful planning, financial analysis, and alignment with long-term objectives to ensure a smooth transition.

Insight: Businesses preparing for exit should seek expert advice, conduct comprehensive due diligence, optimise their financials to ensure the best possible price, and identify potential buyers or investors who align with their strategic vision. The CFO Centre has helped countless businesses plan and execute profitable and smooth exits for our clients. Hear from one of them here.

Conclusion:

Understanding where your business sits on its growth journey is crucial for making informed decisions and charting a path towards success. Whether you are scaling, a market leader, in the early stage, or preparing for exit, each growth stage presents unique opportunities and challenges. To gain deeper insights into your business’s growth journey, consider taking the Scale-up & Exit Business Assessment™ by The CFO Centre. Or contact us on 1300 447 740 to find out how we could add significant value to your business.

Critical Factors for Improving Profitability

January 15, 2024 by lauramills

In a recent survey of our clients, improving profitability emerged as one of the top three priorities on their business agenda. Profitability is the lifeblood of any successful enterprise, and understanding its intricacies is crucial for business owners and managers alike. In this blog, we’ll dive into the two primary drivers of profit and explore the indispensable link between profitability and cash flow.

Profitability is affected by sales and reducing costs. Within the realms of sales there are 3 critical areas: price, volume and customers. These elements are not isolated but intricately interconnected, each influencing sales in unique ways.

Price

To improve profitability and performance, price sets the scene. It will determine the volume of sales and ultimately attract different types of customers.

The most obvious part of profitability is the selling price. It is essential when determining the price to ensure that the price and sales volume allow the business to be profitable. It is therefore, good practice to also review these prices regularly.

Setting prices involves a careful balance across your product range. It’s common to have “loss-leader” products, which may not yield substantial profits but can be offset by other lucrative offerings. Competitive pricing and your desired market positioning should also guide your pricing strategy. Discounts can boost sales volume but may impact profitability, so diligent record-keeping and regular review are key.

When offering a discount to a customer, always remember that the discount will increase sales volume, but it will also eat into the profitability of the products. You should record all discounts and review them regularly.

Two valuable metrics for monitoring pricing effectiveness are profit margin and mark-up. Both metrics should be in sync with your pricing strategy, allowing you to make necessary adjustments.

Always review your gross and net margins against previous periods
Understand customer profitability and their behaviours
Minimise discounting if possible
Implement and review a mark-up policy
Analyse sales on a regular basis.
Use key financial indicators to identify any anomalies that may impact the sales price:
- Cost of goods sold margin
- Gross margin
- Average stock turnover
- Mark-up

Volume

There are two ways in which volume can be increase. The first is through increasing your current level of sales with your existing customers, and the other is sourcing new clients.

To boost sales with existing customers, implement a comprehensive marketing strategy and capitalise on the often-overlooked opportunity of up-selling. Effective sales targets and an understanding of your break-even point are essential to drive performance.

Selling targets are a way to monitor overall performance and enhance profitability. Therefore, I advise you to look at this carefully as it can have an impact on other areas of the business. Understanding your break-even point will allow for realistic targets to be set and ensure profit is maximised.

To help increase the volume:

Understand your customers’ buying patterns
Implement a marketing strategy to increase sales volumes
Introduce loyalty programs that encourage referrals
Train staff to excel in upselling high-profit products.
Use break-even calculations to set achievable sales targets
Explore opportunities to expand into new markets

Customers

Exceptional customer service is the cornerstone of customer retention and acquisition. Understanding your customers’ needs and preferences is a simple yet powerful step towards business improvement. Utilising a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system can provide invaluable insights into customer behaviour.

Understand the needs of the business customer and use this information to improve the customer service experience.
Utilise tools like Survey Monkey to measure customer service levels.
Reward current customer for their loyal support
Consider using mystery shoppers to monitor customer service
Maintain regular contact with customers to stay top of mind

In conclusion, the pursuit of profitability is a nuanced journey, and this blog only scratches the surface of what’s achievable.

At The CFO Centre, we boast a team of over 45 experienced CFOs across Australia and New Zealand, and over 1000 globally. Our track record speaks volumes about our ability to help clients boost their profits. If you’re interested in learning more, feel free to contacting us at 1300 447 740. Your success is our priority, and we’re here to help you on your journey to greater profitability.

You can also get in contact with us here.

First published on 22nd Feb ’22
Updated on 15th Jan ’24

Harness Your Profits With 7 Business Levers

January 7, 2024 by lauramills

Have you ever wondered why your cash-flow fluctuates even when sales are strong? Or how your business is valued in the eyes of an external party? Then you need to know the seven (7) levers in your business to increase profits.

With just a little additional focus on one or more of these 7 levers, you can directly improve the cash-flow, profitability and/or value of your business. There’s no smoke and mirrors, nor anything particularly difficult to undertake. However, many business owners do not take the time to appreciate how the financial performance of their business really works. So, let’s break it down.

Often business owners will primarily focus on sales volume, in other words trying to sell more. However, whilst sales volume is important, it’s only one of the 7 levers available to you.

What are the 7 levers in a business that control your cash, profit and business valuation?

The first four levers are focused on your Profit and Loss and therefore directly impact the profitability (and cash-flow) of your business. As most, businesses are valued at a multiple of cash earnings. These levers also have a huge impact on the value of your business (along with other aspects such as Brand, customer base / income streams, and internal expertise / “keyman” dependence).

1.Volume

Selling more – although increasing sales can grow your business, don’t forget to focus on the other levers below! How much of every extra $1 in revenue turns into profit and into cash in your bank account, and when?

Tip – formulate a sales & marketing plan, with a budget, which is aligned back to your overall Strategy. Review and tweak the plan regularly. This will help keep you focused on the right way to grow your top line. Any growth needs to be sustainable!

2. Pricing

Can you increase your prices? Even a 1% increase can have a big impact. There can be a fear of losing customers by putting up your prices, which can often be unfounded.

Tip – review your margins by product / service stream / customer to ascertain which sales are making you money and which are not. You need to know your break-even points! Your part- time CFO can help – they love this stuff!

Tip – the results of your pricing analysis need to dovetail into the sales & marketing plan. It’s possible to make more profit from less turn-over!

3. Cost of Goods Sold – reduction in % terms

This lever is most relevant to those businesses with direct costs such as manufacturers, construction, etc and places the focus on your gross margin.

Tip – revisit your direct purchasing arrangements and negotiate better terms and pricing. For example, bulk purchase discounts, early payment discounts, reduced freight. Maintaining strong supply chain relationships is important but that doesn’t mean you can’t ask the question (or find potential alternatives).

Tip – review your direct labour-force using metrics such as labour utilisation, overtime levels, re-work, customer complaints, and down-time. You may be able to re-deploy staff or reduce casual labour / overtime once you have this data. Again, your part-time CFO can make this happen for you.

4. Reducing Overheads

This may sound like an obvious one, but we always find at least some unnecessary “fat” in our client’s overhead expenditure.

Tip – someone needs to review the overheads line by line. Indirect / office wages, communications, insurance, utilities, freight, and advertising are the common ones where savings can be achieved. Even small reductions in certain areas can all add up over time!

These last three levers are focused on your Balance Sheet and are collectively called Working Capital. They have a significant impact on your cash-flow and therefore also on your funding requirements. Many businesses can avoid additional debt borrowings, or pay their existing debt faster by shortening their cash-conversion cycle.

5. Reducing debtor days

This means improving the ageing profile of your Accounts Receivable function (i.e. getting your customers to pay you faster).

Tip – review your credit control policy and your payment terms as customers with poor payment histories should be carefully managed. Review your collections process in terms of who chases the debt and when. The introduction of direct debit may be an excellent solution for some businesses.

6. Reducing stock days

This means a faster conversion of your inventory (if you carry it) into sold product, thereby reducing the amount of stock you hold.

Tip – introduce a stock-take process if you don’t have one. This can ensure that your financial records mirror what you actually have on the shop-floor. Then review the results of the stock-take for slow-moving or obsolete stock items which may need to be discounted in order to convert them into cash. Your purchasing policies may also need review if you are over-stocked with certain inventory lines.

7. Increasing creditor days

This means taking longer to pay suppliers (without hurting the relationship or cutting off supply).

Tip – contact your suppliers to re-negotiate your settlement terms. It’s just a matter of asking the question – they may say “no” but then again, they may really value your business.

Now you know the what the 7 levers are, it’s time to do something tangible with them in order to make a real impact on your business. If you don’t have the internal expertise or time to make it happen, we would be happy to talk to you about how a part-time CFO can bring this to life. After all, as CFOs it’s what we do!

Call us on 1300 447 740 to find out more, or you can contact us here.

Photo by Artem Podrez from Pexels

Our 6 Top Tips For Business Planning In 2024

November 29, 2023 by lauramills

When it comes to business planning, now is the perfect time to reflect on the year just gone and strategise for the year ahead. The last few years have thrown many of us challenges and/or opportunities never seen before. So how can your business go further or do better in 2024?

Below is a business planning checklist to help you when planning for the future:

Know Where you Stand

Does your financial reporting provide you with an accurate and timely view of the financial performance of your business? These could contain:

Historic balance sheet, profit and loss and cash-flow together with a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) that the management team use to run the business on a day to day basis.
Rolling forecast balance sheet, profit and loss and cash-flow driven by the same KPIs. Even a static annual budget is better than no target at all.

Analyse

Have you analysed all of your products or service offerings and identified those that should be invested in and those which should be scaled back to improve the performance of the business?

Review Costs

Have you reviewed all of your costs and identified all of those costs where alternative suppliers can be identified and current deals can be renegotiated? This helps to minimise your cost base and refine your negotiation skills. Are there possible savings from systems and/or process streamlining?

Review Customers

Have you reviewed all your customers and identified the good ones form the bad ones i.e. those that take ages to pay and/or beat you down on price etc.? It may be time to let the bad ones go and focus on the ones you want.

Assess Risk

Have you assessed all of the obvious risks in your business and made sure that you have a contingency plan in place to avoid those with the highest likelihood and most significant impact?

Your Personal Goals

Take the time to really reflect on why you started the business, are those goals still the same today and are you getting closer to achieving them?

Plan:

Once you have considered the above, you are ready to start planning. A clear operational plan for the future of the business, which shows you the steps required to implement that plan is the best road to success. If you do not have this it will be impossible to identify opportunities that arise next year that fit your plan for the business.

Most of our clients have been through this process with our guidance and as a result many are now looking to exploit the opportunities, to expand their markets and recruit key staff to help drive their businesses forward in 2023.

To get your business in the best shape for 2024, contact The CFO Centre on 1300 447 740.

The CFO Centre is dedicated to helping businesses meet their strategic objectives. Find out how it works by watching this short video on our website – https://www.cfocentre.com/au/how-it-works/

Top 7 Advantages of a Part Time CFO

November 29, 2023 by lauramills

A part time CFO is the ideal solution for SME businesses looking to scale, who can’t afford or don’t need a full time resource. One of our clients recently said “it’s the best money I’ve ever spent”.

That’s because a part-time CFO will provide your company with the high-level financial expertise necessary to increase profit, improve cash flow and scale up, for a fraction of the cost of a full-time CFO.

Here are the top seven advantages you can expect when you hire a part-time CFO.

1. Increased Profit

The number one thing most business owners want! Having a part time CFO on your team, with their years of commercial experience across many industries, they can increase profits of most businesses by tweaking the levers every business has to increase profit. For this reason alone, it’s worth considering a part time CFO.

2. Strategic advice

Your part-time CFO will provide you with strategic analysis and support on every financial aspect of your business. A report from the Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF) found CFOs play key roles in not only managing a company’s finances but also in setting broader strategic goals and establishing and achieving financial and non-financial milestones. What’s more, part time CFOs can highlight potential threats or risks of which you and your team may be unaware or perhaps don’t know how to deal with.

3. Flexibility

You can use the services of your part time CFO for what you need, when you need it. That could be for a variety of different financial functions or a specific project. This means you and your CFO can tailor the role to suit your company’s needs at any time.

4. Multiple industry experience

Although you can choose to work with part time CFOs who have direct experience in your given industry, you can also opt to work with those that have experience across multiple industries. The advantage will be that your CFO will provide you with access to networks and multi-layered insights that you might not otherwise have.

5. Sounding board

Running a company can often be a lonely and stressful experience for CEOs, according to The CFO Centre’s Chairman Colin Mills in his book ‘Scaling Up How to Take Your Business to the Next Level Without Losing Control and Running Out of Cash’. He’s seen first-hand what pressure does to business owners.

“I’ve sat in sales meetings with entrepreneurs who had literally been brought to tears by stress and frustration and the feeling that it’s all too much.”

That’s where a part-time CFO can help. He or she can act as an independent sounding board for the over-burdened, stressed-out business owner. With their ‘big business’ experience, it’s more than likely CFOs can provide solutions to what can seem like overwhelming problems to the CEOs of growing businesses.

6. Access to a national and international network

If you choose a part-time CFO from an organisation like The CFO Centre, you’ll benefit from the expertise from all the CFOs in its worldwide network. That’s hundreds of years of experience in every aspect of finance—all for a fraction of the cost of employing a single full-time CFO.

7. Enjoy life through your business, sooner

With the help of a part time CFO, your business will start delivering on what’s really important to you so you get to live the life you choose (eg. more time with family, more time on rather than in your business).

To discover how the CFO Centre will help your company, please call us on 1300 447 740, contact us or watch our short video How it Works.

Photo by Headway on Unsplash

How Do You Know If You Have A Successful Business?

November 20, 2023 by lauramills

There are so many definitions of a successful business. For example, Google’s definition of a successful business is: “Success is running a profitable firm that conducts business with honesty and integrity, makes meaningful contributions to the communities it serves and nurtures high-quality, balanced lives for its employees”.

Business owners need to dig deeper than this definition. They need to understand their why, and where they want the business to be in the future. My suggestion to business owners is to start with the below to assist in identifying their path.

Define your Strategy

Business Strategy is the small choices you make every day that will lead your business to success. The phrase “strategic focus” can help you to understand the things that you do to run your business.

You need to make sure that your business strategy is not based on guesswork. You need to know where your business is heading. It’s like a journey, almost like a lifetime achievement.

Define Your Mission Statement

Every business needs to have a mission statement or vision statement that explains what your company is all about. This mission statement will help define your company’s direction, focus and actions. Defining a mission statement is perhaps one of the most important things you can do to understand the direction of your business.

Define Your Business Goals

You must have clear goals for all aspects of your business, including Personal Development Goals, Career Development Goals, Sales & Marketing Goals and Financial Goals. These goals should be in line with your strategy.

Some of the questions the business owner needs to ask are:

How does your business add value for its customers?

How can your business best serve its customers?

What is unique about your business model?

Do you know the strengths and weaknesses of your business model?

What opportunities does your business have in the market space in which it operates?

How will you successfully leverage these opportunities in a way that will lead to a high growth rate?

Which elements of your business model must be refined or improved to help achieve the above goals? And what is the plan for executing that plan?

Defining the Strategy, mission and goals allows the business owner to create Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) that align with the goals and help guide the business to their overall strategy. These KPIs will be the basis of developing the systems and processes that will maximise your success.

Once you have a clear strategy, you should share this with all relevant team members so that everyone is clear on the direction of the company. Then conduct a monthly review to re-evaluate your strategy against current market conditions and business developments. This will ensure that your plan is still going in the right direction by measuring your strategy against the KPI’s that you have set to create a successful business.

Take action

I can hear you saying that you don’t have time to do this and that this will take you away from day-to-day business. This is where you need to lean on your CFO (Chief Financial Officer). This is what we do best and can help lead the way. The CFO Centre has been assisting SMEs for 22 years, offering highly experienced Chief Financial Officers on a flexible, part-time basis. As CFOs we are qualified CPAs or CAs with extensive commercial experience across multiple sectors, so we know what to look for and how to respond to any challenge. Call 1300 447 740 or contact us to find out more.

Written by Elechia Jones, Regional Director – The CFO Centre

Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels

The Ultimate Guide To Strategic Planning

October 20, 2023 by lauramills

The Importance of Strategic Planning

Strategic Planning is the key to the success of any business, no matter its size or age. The strategic plan sets out:

the company’s direction and priorities;
its main operating and financial targets,
the actions it will take to achieve those objectives,
the new initiatives and investments planned, and
their impact on performance.

As we swiftly approach the end of 2023, now is a great time for reflection. What were your objectives for this year? Are you on the way to achieving them, or have other things got in the way?

Some SME owners keep plans in their head, but a formal plan is an extremely valuable tool for managing and growing a business, as it:

clearly communicates the company’s priorities
ensures all key staff are working towards common goals
sets the focus on key objectives
delegates actions and accountabilities amongst employees
ensures that decisions made will benefit the long-term company goals
highlights strengths and weaknesses.

Failing to plan is like planning to fail

Not spending quality time on strategic planning usually leads to a chaotic working environment. Our clients often talk about ‘not feeling in control’ and ‘not really knowing what is coming around the next corner’. When the plan is weak, business owners tend to operate without the same sense of conviction as those who allocate time and expertise to the planning process. Our CFOs often find that their clients have done some good planning and strategic thinking but need a devil’s advocate to ask the right questions and help to steer the ship in the right direction.

4 Mistakes Business Owners Can Make

They don’t have a plan at all
They don’t have a formal plan, it’s in their head which is difficult to share with others
They don’t have an implementation timetable attached to their plan
They don’t have a mechanism in place to conduct regular reviews

Without a comprehensive, up-to-date strategic plan and an implementation timetable, companies may be missing out on opportunities for growth and not realising their full potential. A formal plan can be an extremely valuable tool for managing and growing a business, as it allows a company to recognise its strengths and weaknesses.

The Importance of Reviewing Your Plan

Strategic Planning is integral to business success, however a plan is only useful if it is reviewed regularly to ensure it meets the current and future needs of the business.  It’s vital business owners regularly review their financial strategy to ensure they have the right funding in place to meet the needs of their business, at its current stage of the business lifecycle.

Most CEOs simply don’t have the time to spend on quality strategic thinking and to document and communicate that thinking in a way which allows the whole business to buy into the vision. Harder still is managing and implementing the business plan. Significant strategic course corrections are commonplace in fast-growing companies. These should therefore, be embraced. The tricky part though is in managing regular change. That requires a combination of time and specialist knowledge.

There is an art and science to effective strategic planning. Getting it right brings a real sense of clarity and direction to a business – this is where an experienced part-time CFO can make a significant contribution.

Creating Your Plan

Step 1: Analysis

1. Analysis of Existing Situation – Organisational Philosophy & Mission & Value

Does it reflect what you stand for?
Do your people understand its true meaning?
Does it make it clear as to how you have to compete and against whom?
Is it simply written? Is it clear and unambiguous? Is it believable and realistic?
Does it motivate people? Does it attract pride or cynicism?
Does it give us some indication of what we should be doing and how we should be doing it?
Do all the constituent parts fit and hang together?
“Identity Pyramid” – do you have clarity around all the issues?

2. Internal Appraisal of Company

SWOT analysis – revisit previous analysis & ensure it is complete & current
Distinguish between endowments and core competencies
Assess and audit core capabilities.
Gauge fit between external environment and core capabilities
Identify fit between customer requirements and core capabilities

Having identified what you perceive to be your competences ask yourself the following questions:

Will this give us any source of long term sustainable competitive advantage? Clarify the how? (ie. how relevant is it to the needs of our customers (actual and potential)).
Do customers (broadly) agree with our findings (ie. the market place)?
Can competitors (present/future) emulate or do better? Do they share our perception?
How was this list of core competences arrived at (eg. Training, innovation etc)?
Any weaknesses/shortfall still? If so, what further investments will be required?
Is there any impact on the strategic balance sheet (ie. Intangible and human assets)?
Can it be levered, onto other applications and/or markets?
What happens next?

3. Competitive Analysis

What is the current process for this task?
The Positioning Statement (competitive positioning) – refer below
Scan present competitive position but focus also on future competition.
Do you really know your competitors strategy?
Understand changing face of competition
Who could be a future competitor?
Is your strategy and your competitors becoming more alike or more divergent?
What is the most radical thing that your competitor(s) could do?

4.Value Proposition

Consider or revisit the current Unique Sales Proposition within your Marketing plan & ensure it is complete and up-to-date.
Do you know why your customers buy from you and not you competitor(s)?
Have you asked them?
How can you improve customer experience?

5. Environmental & Industry Analysis

Consider legal, social, political, economic, technological, markets, labour position, society, pressure groups, and any other environmental issue.
Assess potential impact of any change(s) and consider timing implications.
Conduct intensive industry analysis.
What is the long-term viability of the industry as a whole?
What could change the industry dynamics?
What is the nature of current industry changes i.e. radical, creative, intermediate or progressive?
What could be the impact on your strategy and source of competitive advantage of such changes?
Five years or so from now how will the industry leaders look and act?

Step 2: Strategic Thinking

1. Identify Strategic Alternatives

All options to be examined – growth, acquisitions, alliances, JV’s, innovation.
Upside and downside risks identified

2. Strategy Evaluation & Selection

Clear choice to be made
How will we compete?
Evaluate impact of each option
Will it give unique competitive advantage?
Can it last? Can it be sustained?
Will it differentiate us from our competitors?
Can it be converted easily into a set of business objectives / KPI’s?
How will competitors react?
Easy to implement?
Contingencies in place?
What about the next wave?
Is it consistent with customer requirements and industry changes?
Will it create shareholder value?
Is it financially viable?

Step 3: Implementation

1. Matching Strategy & Organisational Structure

Do we have the necessary resources?
Is there a logical fit?
Is current structure adequate? Assess extent of change. Do not ignore culture effect.
What about the organisation’s values?
Is strategy personalised enough? Assess flexibility and robustness.

2. Allocation of Resources & Responsibilities

Planning, Plans, budgets, controls, appraisals etc….. all to be consistent with strategy
Strategy well translated into clear objectives
Priorities and constraints identified
Time horizons clearly laid out
Management information systems to dovetail strategic choice

3. Regular Reviews & Adjustments

Planning, plans, budgets, controls, appraisals etc…all to be consistent with strategy

Strategic Planning – How a CFO Will Guide You

Under The Spotlight – The CFO as a Strategist

Photo by Rohan Makhecha on Unsplash

Numbers Matter. What’s The Most Important Number In The Universe?

October 14, 2023 by lauramills

Numbers matter.

Our mathematical universe is constructed of numbers.

Some we can see. Most we can’t.

From the speed of light to the parabolic curve of a free-kick in football, maths underpins the laws of the universe.

We can also deconstruct our entire lives in numbers.

The average human lives for around 80 years – or 28,385 days.

Most of us will spend 33 years in bed. That’s 12,045 days. For those who hit snooze when the alarm goes off in the morning, it might be closer to 34 years…

You’ll likely spend around 13 years and 2 months (4,821 days) at work. Hopefully, doing something you love.

And 11 years and 4 months (4,731 days) staring at a screen.

That doesn’t leave a huge amount of time for the things that really matter in life…

Spending quality time with family is remarkably, although perhaps unsurprisingly, a very small part of our modern day lives. We’re down to just 38 minutes a week or 104 days in our life time.

That one makes you think.

When it comes to socialising, there’s a little improvement – we’re up to 1 year and 3 days. Again, it’s not a lot, is it?

In business, it seems like we focus constantly on the numbers…

…Leads, opportunities, wins.

Year on year growth.

Cash flow, profit, valuation.

But how often do we put these numbers into context?

How often do we ask ourselves ‘what is the number that really matters to me?’

When we ask entrepreneurs this question, they often find it hard to answer.

It’s an unusual question and causes an interruption in our conditioned daily thought pattern.

One entrepreneur said the number that really mattered to them was ‘6’ as it represented the number of weeks they spent each year skiing, because they had designed their business to support their lifestyle.

Another said ‘13’ to denote the $13m asking price for their business which meant they could retire early and never worry about money again.

The numbers that appear on your P&L and balance sheet matter, but when was the last time you stopped and asked yourself ‘what is the number that really matters to me?’

It’s a powerful question and invariably creates an energetic shift which can fuel a new trajectory for your business and indeed your life.

If you’re struggling to answer that question, contact us as we’d love to help.

Scaling: The Power of Momentum (54%)

Market Leaders: Maintaining the Edge (18%)

Early Stage: Nurturing Potential (15%)

Preparing for Exit: Strategic Transitions (9%)