Posts Tagged ‘budget’

Yesterday I arose with the sun to attend a seminar on cash flow and budgeting presented by my esteemed business advisor, Trish Thomas of Akamai Consulting, and Connor Morganti of Johnson-Morganti, a financial planning and insurance company.

Though the topic is at best snooze-worthy and at worst panic-inducing, I came away with plenty of insight on how to make cash flow even when financial times are tough.  Here’s a selection of tips and advice from Trish and Connor.  If you like them, drop me a line or a comment and I’ll make sure to invite you to the next in the series…it’s totally free!

Take money in quickly and consistently.  This means invoicing promptly, collecting aggressively, and making sure to require deposits and down payments to spread the financial love.

Hang on to $ as long as possible…and spend wisely.  Trish told the story of a client who paid off a huge bill at the end of last year…only to have to lay off an employee this year due to lack of cash.

It takes a long time to build up financial credibility…and only an instant to tear it back down.  You owe it to your financial reputation to be proactive if times are tight.  Be the first to reach out with a credible plan.  It can save you with banks, lenders, and vendors.

Don’t run and hide from the word “budget.” It can seem pointless to budget with uncertain cash flow, but you need to create a system that puts expectations in place and allows you to measure performance and set goals.

You get out what you put in.  Work on abolishing the poverty-minded mindset and resist the temptation to play into the panic that characterizes this downturn.

Photo courtesy of garydenness

Welcome to Day 1 of VOCO Creative’s “Does It Work?  Assessing Your Brand” series!

Assessing your brand doesn’t have to be a daunting process.  Whether you’re a small firm or a large corporation, you have to look back before you can look ahead.  Should you get bogged down in details or past mistakes?  No.  Should you learn from what was and move forward?  Of course!

Step 1 of your year-end brand assessment essentially consists of one (deceptively) simple question: 

Where am I?

I don’t care about your ZIP code.  I care about hard data…facts and figures.  If you can answer these questions, you’re off to a good start:

• What one word would I use to characterize my brand’s progress this year?
• What specific actions have I taken to market and promote that brand?
• What kind of audience do I have?  Has that market changed in the past 12 months?  If so, how?
• How much money have I spent on branding this year?  What has been my return on investment?
• What metrics do I use to mark my progress?  What do those show me about my business?
• What am I happiest about with my marketing and brand strategy?
• What is my wish list for 2009?
• What is my budget?

Seem like a long list?  Maybe.  Consider it the kernel for your assessment.  These facts and figures are a great starting point.

Continue to join us this week…we’ll teach you how to use the answers you find to assess the strength of your brand and how to adjust if you don’t have all the information you need.

Photo courtesy of emdot