Is Your Business in Good Shape for 2021?

 

Is your business in good shape for 2021?

Well what a year that was!

Many businesses will have had to make some significant changes to their strategy during 2020, and now can be a good time to reflect on these and see what has happened, whilst at the same time, looking to stabilise the business in preparation for moving forward in 2021 post Covid-19.

Peter O’Sullivan, Regional Director for The CFO Centre in Victoria provides a checklist for businesses on how to ‘stabile’ for the future:

1. The best businesses know exactly where they stand. Does your financial reporting provide you with an accurate view of the financial performance of your business within a short period from each month end? 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.

2. 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?
3. 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.
4. Have you reviewed all your customers and identified the good ones form the bad ones i.e. those that take ages to pay etc.? Use those negotiation skills to make the most of your customers.
5. 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?
6. Do you have a clear operational plan for the future of the business broken down to show you the steps required to implement hat plan? If you do not have this is will be impossible to identify those opportunities that arise next year that fit your plan for the business.

Most of our clients have been through this process during 2020.  As a result many are now looking to exploit the opportunities, post recovery, to expand their markets and recruit key staff to help drive their businesses forward in 2021.

The CFO Centre is dedicated to helping businesses meet their strategic objectives. To have a conversation about getting your business in the best shape for 2021, contact The CFO Centre on 1300 447 740.