business strategy

October 22, 2015

Filling the Entrepreneur’s Skill Gap

In a past Blog, I have written about making sure that you surround yourself with a team that covers any areas that are not your strong point. As an entrepreneur, you have many skills and the drive to succeed, but rarely do you have it all. Therefore, is crucial to find people to help you with those areas. Many entrepreneurs find this difficult, for different reasons. One reason that is often cited is lack of funds to hire employees.

The reality is that you do not need full time employees to do everything that has to be done, and hiring contractors for critical elements of your business process can work, and often are less expensive than you might think. While it might be a challenge to come up with funds to pay the contractors, it is well worth the effort when you see the outcome.

For example, I am engaging in a sales campaign for another enterprise in which I am involved. We are doing it the old fashioned way, sending out letters with a real ink signature and following up with a telephone call. I do not engage a full time person to do sales for this particular company, at least not yet. How did I find my sales caller? In this case, I used the site Elance and found a person that had the skills that I needed. I then interviewed her by phone (a great test of someone’s phone skills), and finally had her do a few test calls. Based on the results, she has been making sales calls for 9 months now.

Another example would be using a service to make your work look professional. Last year, I conducted a survey in the same industry as the company mentioned above. The results were significant and very interesting, but the resulting white paper looked kind of blah. I then used a graphic artist who took the content and formatted it with typesetting and graphics that brought immediate attention to crucial information and conclusions of the report. I never could have done that on my own.

The lesson taken is that an entrepreneur/small business owner will never have the skills to do it all, so don’t be afraid to hire a contractor to fill in those skill gaps.

Question: do you have any examples of how you used outside help fill in skill gaps. Also, do you have any suggestions on where to find the help you need?

March 19, 2015

Did Someone Say Competitive Advantage? A Great New Book on Strategy

Did Some Say Competitive Advantage? A Great New Book on Strategy

“Did someone say competitive advantage?” In a booming voice, Dr. Chuck Bamford started his class on strategy, a capstone piece in the Notre Dame Executive MBA program. I was fortunate to follow this class with Dr. Bamford, and it has made a big difference to me.

Now Dr. Chuck has written a book entitled, “The Strategy Mindset”. In creating this pared-down tome, Bamford has distilled his wisdom on strategy to its essence. The book is easily read, but more importantly, presents a clear, logical and winning formula for doing strategy right. I know, because I have used this formula with several companies, always to great success. I have been waiting for Dr. Chuck to create this volume for some time now.

The author is a straight talker, and begins with some myth busting. He pulls no punches when he takes issue with a number of ideas about strategy, including some of the more common myths of the day, such as trying to be the low cost leader. He not only takes issue with these myths, but cogently explains why they don’t work.

In the rest of the volume, Dr. Chuck takes you step by step though strategy, presenting an overview of the model that is both strong and easy to understand. He begins with the importance external analysis. Many a business has been started with an idea, but if that idea is not based on a sound understanding of the market, its’ players and dynamics between them, the idea will probably not come to fruition.

The author then turns to an internal analysis of the company in order to understand what about the company makes them stand out in the marketplace. This is not a “My people are my advantage exercise.” Rather he seeks an understanding of what within the company creates the advantage, in order to focus resources on those facets.

The next stage of Dr. Chuck’s process is the creation of a one-page strategy map that make crystal clear what each person in a company must do for all to achieve success. To those that protest at the simplicity, Dr. Bamford insists that with proper preparation, if the exercise of creating a strategy takes more than two days, you are doing something wrong. The elements of the strategy map are:

  • The Value Driver: what creates value for the customer.
  • Stakeholder Statements: what you want the stakeholder to say about the company.
  • Need from the company: what we need to make this happen.
  • Must do individually: what I need to do to make this happen.
  • Metrics: how we will measure success.

I don’t often make endorsements, but I cannot speak highly enough of this book. You need to acquire a copy of The Strategy Mindset by Dr. Chuck Bamford today!

January 24, 2015

Be Thankful for What We Have

Several days ago, my wife was sworn in as an U.S. citizen in a ceremony in Chicago. Having dealt with the government bureaucracy throughout, we did not have high hopes for the occasion, but were pleasantly surprised by the ceremony that took place. Along with the 140 other new citizens and several hundred friends and families, we sang the national anthem and recited the pledge of allegiance. We watched a video about immigrants and also a music video with the song, “Proud to be an American”. The new citizens recited the oath to their new country.

For me, the highpoint of the ceremony was when the new citizens came forward to receive their certificate of naturalization. Of course, this is the digital age, so there were several new citizens taking selfie-videos of themselves receiving the certificate.

The person that impressed me the most was a gentleman in his 60’s, who really looked the part of an immigrant; neatly dressed but somewhat grizzled, with the rough hands of one who had done manual labor for many years. When he received his certificate, he held it aloft in both hands as high as he could reach to show it to friends and family across the room, and then began jumping up and down in a dance of sheer joy, a wide smile on his face. This was an important moment in this man’s life!

Of course, bureaucracy was on display that day as well. It took longer to check in the 141 prospective citizens than the actual ceremony. The Bulldog noted several quick changes in process that could have cut the time in less than half, but I kept my peace that day.

Afterwards, my wife told me about a comment that one of the bureaucrats made during the checking in lineup. Seeing the long line waiting to check in, she asked how many were there. When she was told that it was 141, she said, “Wow, why so many? Are they giving something away for free? I want some!” My wife had the right thought, but she did not verbalize at the time. I will now, “Ma’am, you’ve already got it, and you don’t even know!”

What the bureaucrat had was the liberty and blessings of being an American citizen. Unfortunately, at least at that moment, she seemed to have forgotten that fact. Many do, including myself from time to time. The freedom to live as I would like, to be an entrepreneur and build a business that supports my family and my community. The freedom to express myself and my ideas. We often take these things for granted, and often it is immigrants who remind about these freedoms.

To quote Churchill, “”Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” (From a House of Commons speech on Nov. 11, 1947).

 

April 23, 2013

Sustaining Growth – A Practical Example

In last week‘s posting (Sustaining Growth), I introduced a model that would allow a small business owner to understand how fast their company may grow without external financial inputs. In other words, how quickly can your business grow without running out of cash and without infusing new cash from equity or loans. In addition, the model also allows a small business owner to see how other changes and improvements might

The Allowable Growth Rate model that I introduced last week is:

AGR = Net Profit Margin x Rate of Retention x Asset Turnover x Leverage

Let’s take a look at an example: a small business has sales of $900,000, with Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) of $350,000, Sales and General Administration (SG&A) costs of $400,000 for a Net Profit of $150,000. In addition, the company’ owner pays a dividends $100,000 to investors. The business has Capital of $450,000, of which $300,000 is debt and the rest equity.

 AGR   =   16.7%    x    33.3%   x   2   x   2   =  22.2%

AGR     =     $900,000     x     22.2%     =     $200,000

Simply put, with retained earnings of $50,000 (after dividends), the company turns assets over 2 times a year, and has leverage of 2, meaning that internal operations will allow the company to turn the $50,000 of retained earnings into $200,000 of new sales without external funds.

Supposing, however, that the product or service that the company sells has made a hit in the marketplace, and sales could grow much more quickly than that. If the company expands more rapidly, they will be pinched by a lack of capital to sustain the growth.

If it is possible to make improvements internally, you should try. For example, if the company can decrease Cost of Goods Sold, Sales or General Administration Expenses, each dollar saved would be another dollar to be reinvested into the business, all things being equal. For example, a decrease in COGS and SG&A of just 5% would increase Net Profit and AGR as follows

AGR   =   20.8%   x   46.7%   x   2   x   2   =   38.9%

AGR     =     $900,000     x     38.9%     =     $350,000

You could also analyze other operations. What if the company could use its assets more efficiently, thus increasing capital turnover? This would allow them to create more sales with the same assets, thus increasing AGR, again without external financial inputs. The following example assumes that the company is able to increase asset turnover from 2 to 3, increasing revenue to $1,350,000. We also assume that COGS and SG&A will increase by roughly 1/3, as would dividends. The resulting equation for AGR is

AGR   =   27.8%   x   65.3%    x   3   x   2   =   108.9%

AGR     =     $900,000     x     108.9%     =     $1,470,000

Of course, not every company is simply going to increase asset turnover by 50%, but this illustrates how internal change can have a significant effect on financial performance. In reality, you would always want to look at improvement in internal operations as a way to increase AGR, before looking at external financial inputs, such as debt or equity. If you were to seek external financing, a good investor or bank partner is going to want to look at improvements anyway.

 

April 8, 2013

Effective, Efficient, Repeatable Processes

There are times, when dealing with different situations in business, when I remind myself that patience is a virtue. I ran into one of those times recently, though I will not release any names in order to protect the guilty! In this case, not only is patience a virtue, but the creation and maintenance of effective, efficient, repeatable and most of all, documented processes could have saved a large amount of virtue expended on my part!

Whether your business is large or small, when you reinvent the wheel with every new business opportunity, you are wasting precious resources. Even worse, when process is informal and undocumented, you could be wasting the precious time of a client or a vendor. This is essentially what happened to me. Had I known what was expected of me when interacting with this vendor, we could have been much more efficient. Imagine what might have happened if vendor employees had known what to do as well.

The first quality of a good business process is to be effective. In other words, the process is intended to accomplish something specific and is designed to do so. Forgive the old adage, but if you don’t know where you are going, you are very likely to wind up there! When designing process, always begin with the end in mind, and be certain through testing that the process actually accomplishes what is intended.

The second quality of a good business process is to be efficient. This means that the process should only include only those inputs, outputs and steps that are absolutely necessary to accomplish the end in mind. Many of us have a natural tendency towards complexity and we must resist at all costs. When you are creating business process, ask at each step along the way, “Is this really necessary?”  Think of the other person, be they client or vendor, carrying out the process; will they be muttering under their breath as to why they must perform this action?

The third quality of a good business process is to be repeatable. As mentioned above, the height of inefficiency is to do the same thing a different way every time (or was that insanity?). A process that is repeatable will gradually build up a body of experience that will help to increase efficiency and reduce performance time.

The fourth quality of a good business process is to be documented. What others don’t know they cannot follow! If a process lives only in someone’s mind, then there will be a constant battle to get the process done well. Of course, there are those who would like to preserve their position by keeping control, but that rarely works in the long run.

A final lesson here: a truly agile business will also have a process that handles exceptions to the rule. When an effective, efficient, repeatable and documented process produces an unexpected result, business agility requires that another process be available to handle the exception.

These simple, common sense ideas can keep all of us from expending too much of the virtue of patience!

January 2, 2013

Resolve to Follow Your Cash Flow

I saw an interesting saying on a sign the other day, “New Year’s Resolutions, they go in one year and out the next.” That is my philosophy as well when it comes to New Year’s Resolutions. Yet, as a business owner, there is one resolution that ought to be made for the coming year: pay attention to your cash flow.

Most small business owners review their Profit and Loss Statement (hereafter P&L) more or less regularly, but often forget that the bottom line of a P&L is an accounting number. That is, the net profit on a P&L does not take into consideration the timing of cash flows. The business owner will look at the P&L and see a great number, then look at their bank account and say, “Where’s the money?” There are a number of reasons why those numbers may be different.

First, take into account the credit you extend to your customers, also known as receivables. If you have booked sales in a given month, but the actual payment is coming 30, 60 or 90 days in the future, your bank account will not reflect that fact. If you picture your sales as coins flowing into a bucket, any sale made on credit actually has an IOU on it instead of a dollar sign.

Secondly, take into account the credit your suppliers and vendors extend to you, also known as payables. For example, If you look at a P&L that contains cash that will not be paid until 30, 60 or 90 days into the future and do not take that into account, your cash on hand will be inflated beyond what it really is. If you spend those committed dollars on something else, such as payroll, and then have a problem with cash inflow, you might not be able to meet those supplier and vendor obligations when they come around.

The best way to avoid this problem is with a Cash Flow document that takes into account the timing of cash flows. The cash flow document will not register sales for a given month, but the actual cash inflow. The document will not register purchases of goods or services, but the actual cash outflow in a given month. The Cash Flow document should also show the recurring monthly cash outflows for payroll, rent and other expenses. By creating a cash flow document that moves into the future at least 6 months, you will be much better able to predict what cash you will need in any given month in order to cover all of the cash outflows.

Resolving to follow your cash flow in 2013 is one resolution that you can’t afford not to make!

December 18, 2012

Great Customer Service is No Accident

Nothing brings out the bulldog in me more quickly than poor customer service. Recently, the bulldog has had too many occasions to come out! In one case, a company website where I was trying to pay a bill was not working. The site was quite rudimentary for a $6 billion dollar company, with no help function at all. When I called the only number listed on the site, I went through the “pass you on” routine, with lots of hold time during which I was told how important I was to their company.  Finally, I reached the office of the right person to talk to, but she was on vacation. I sincerely hoped that she would make it back from vacation else I might never be able to pay my bill online (or anyone else, for that matter).

In another instance, a well-known delivery company left me a form to sign to have a package delivered on the second attempt. I even called the company to let them know that they could leave the package in the foyer and that I would sign the form. The next day, I found a second form next to the first. When I called this time, the customer service person could not tell me what happened and passed me on to the local terminal.

After a couple of tries, and more messages about how important I was, I reached the terminal manager. The manager explained to me that company regulations did not allow them to leave the package in the foyer of my condo. To put a quick end to the story, about fifteen minutes later when I removed my teeth from his leg (figuratively, of course), he agreed to have the package left as I had requested.

Customer service should be in the DNA of every company, and it does not happen by accident. Based on my experience, both as a customer and as a service provider, here are some guidelines to great customer service:

  1. Every employee of a company is potentially a customer service agent. Even amid the myriad choices in a company’s voice response system many people get through to one employee or another. Therefore, all employees must be trained and ready to handle customer service at a triage level, that is, be able to understand the problem and get the customer to the right place the first time.
  2. There should never be a circumstance where the only person who can solve the problem is not there. When there is a technical problem, multiple experts must be on hand. For a small company, this may mean having experts on call. With today’s technology, reaching a person who can solve a problem should not be a problem.
  3. Customer service representatives must be given reasonable authority to solve a problem. Repeating company policy is not a solution. Nor is saying, “My supervisor is not here right now, he will call you back.”
  4. At the very least, customer service representatives, supervisors and managers must learn how to ask questions and listen, not only to understand the problem, but ascertain what the solution is that the customer wants.

Finally, a suggestion to all companies: please stop using the “your call is important to us” routine!

December 11, 2012

DuPont Analysis: A Practical Example

The previous Blogs in this series introduced you to the DuPont Analysis; this offering will take up a practical example of how a DuPont Analysis can help you understand the state of a business. The subject of the analysis is a small company that manufactures medical devices of different sorts.  This study uses financials from 2011, at which time the company was about a $1.6 million company. To view or download the DuPont pyramid with pertinent numbers go to this  LINK.

I have discovered that people often feel that financial analysis must be quite complex. Well, yes and no. Large companies with complex business structures can be time consuming to analyze. However, in my experience, small business analysis does not need to be complex at all. As a matter of fact, the problems that a small company may be experiencing are not usually very difficult to pinpoint through financial analysis. The example that follows should give you a feel for the relative simplicity of analysis. Of course, if the numbers themselves are off, so will the analysis, but for the sake of example, the numbers presented in this analysis are accurate.

At the top of the pyramid we have a Return on Equity of 25%. In other words, for every $100 of equity invested in the company, there is a return of $25. Now, how are we to interpret that? There are several aspects to consider. If the company was expecting a 15% return, they are doing quite well. On the other hand, if they were expecting 35%, not so well. The previous year Return on Equity was 26%, which gives you one clue, meaning that the current year is down just a bit. However, the current year’s revenues are up by 16%, so there may be something amiss.

In order to understand better we must go deeper into the pyramid. Return on Capital is 23% with leverage at 1.09, meaning that the small load of debt that the company is carrying is actually improving return on equity (23% X 1.09 = 25%). So the problem is not that the company is over leveraged. As we continue down the left hand side, Net Profit Margin at 23%, Operating Profit margin at 30% and Gross Profit Margin at 72% all seem to indicate that the company has cost under control. On the other hand, perhaps the company could boost returns by increasing leverage. Using debt to increase capital for the purpose of increasing investment might be an option.

When we look at the Total Asset Turnover Ratio (also known as Capital Turnover Ratio), we begin to see the tip of an iceberg peaking above the water. The 1.0 indicates that the company is probably not using capital efficiently. At 1.0, the company is turning each dollar of capital over once a year. So, before the company goes looking for increased debt, they must discover why their use of capital is not more efficient.

We can see that Working Capital Turnover is just over 2, which could be an indication of where the rest of the iceberg is hiding. Working Capital is the amount of investment that is used to keep the company operating. It includes inventory, payables and receivables. Another way that this is expressed is in the Cash Cycle, how many days does it take to circulate a dollar in the process of creating a product, collecting that dollar from clients and paying to vendors.

As we can see, in the pyramid, this company’s cash cycle is 613 days long. Of that cycle, inventory is 554 days. This means that  it takes the company 555 days to circulate a dollar in their production and sales process, including both raw materials and parts purchased from vendors, work in process materials that are unfinished products and inventory both on the company’s shelves waiting to go out  or already on a distributor’s shelf waiting to be sold.

The real problem facing the company is that they are tying up capital in their inventory, making it difficult to deploy that capital for other reasons. For example, if their sales were to create a breakthrough, and they required additional manufacturing capacity, it would be difficult to do without taking on additional loans. But, would they want to take on increased debt when their use of that debt is so inefficient.

The real key is how to shorten their production and sales cycle, so as not to tie up large amounts of capital. The solutions could be improved manufacturing methods such as the use of Just in Time, better forecasting the marketplace for demand and paying closer attention to the inventory on distributor’s shelves. The company would do well to fix this problem before it became an even greater challenge, impeding future growth. In addition to fixing the problem, the company needs to monitor the level of both inventory and working capital closely, to guard against future reoccurrence.

As you can see, understanding the way that financial reports give a vision into the state of a company is not all that difficult. Using the tried and true DuPont Method will afford you that vision into the state of your company, and is well worth the time spent to produce the numbers that “don’t lie”!

September 17, 2012

DuPont Analysis: The Numbers Don’t Lie

Over the years that I have been working with small businesses and entrepreneurs, I have discovered that there is no better way to judge the health of your company than through financial analysis. As the title of this blog states, the numbers don’t lie. A good financial analysis can lead you directly to the source of any problems within your business. Yet, many small business owners and entrepreneurs don’t spend a lot of time on financial analysis, or only do so superficially.

In my experience, one of the best ways to analyze you business’ financials is based on a method developed early in the 20th century, the DuPont Method of ratio analysis. The method was created by F Donaldson Brown, an employee of the DuPont Company, as a way to manage General Motors . The DuPont Method was considered the standard until the 70’s, although I still find it a very useful tool.

The DuPont Method introduces a pyramid of ratios with Return on Equity at the apex (click here to download a file). At each level of the pyramid, the method deconstructs ratios into their constituent parts. For example, Return on Equity is composed of Return on Capital multiplied by Leverage. Return on Capital and Leverage are then decomposed into their constituent parts and so on.

The key highlight on financial ratio analysis is to see how financial operations drive value. Some finance people refer to this model as the value drivers model; others, as the financial levers model. The former see value drivers as the explanation of how an entity makes money and increases its value, hence the term “value driver.” The latter view financial ratio analysis as the method for identifying the triggers of financial results, hence the term “financial levers.”

There are three different types of ratios within a DuPont analysis: profitability ratios, activity ratios and solvency ratios. Profitability ratios analyze whether or not you are making money, and why. The question why is the most important part of that inquiry. Many are the occasions when an entrepreneur or small business owner will say to me, “According to my Profit and Loss statement, I am making money. Why is my bank account empty?” Profitability ratios will help to answer that question.

Activity ratios will help you understand how efficiently your business is operating. For example, if your business turns over its capital 3 times a year, but your competition does so 5 times a year, you could be at a competitive disadvantage. In other words you will find it harder to compete because the competition used its capital more efficiently.

Finally, solvency ratios will tell you whether or not you have the financial wherewithal to stay in business. There are many businesses that are the victim of their own success. A business that has a great product or service that others want to buy may expand so rapidly that they don’t have the capital resources (money) to keep up with the expansion. Solvency ratios will help you understand where you are in terms of capital resources and how fast you can grow.

So, tune in for the next three weeks as we take on the DuPont Method.

i Project Management Accounting, Callahan, Stetz & Brooks, John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken New Jersey, 2007
ii Ibid.

September 9, 2012

It’s Cash That Counts

Next week I will begin a series about a financial anlysis tool known as the Dupont Analysis. To set the foundation, I am repeating this Blog about cashflow, because it introduces the capital blance sheet, which is integral to a Dupont Analysis.

I was working with an entrepreneur in startup mode, and was once again reminded of the difference between profits and cash. Particularly in startups, but also in more mature companies that achieve a breakthrough of some sort, mistaking profits reported on an income and expense statement with cash in the bank could be a crucial error. How do people make this mistake?

They do so by not taking into account the timing of cash flows. Remember, an income and expense sheet is reporting sales and expenses as they are booked for accounting reasons, but the cash flows that accompany the sales often do not happen at the same time.

For example, unless they are in retail, most companies do work on a credit basis (when retail accepts a credit card payment, they deposit slips like cash, so there is no extended term). You may not think about that way, but terms like Net 30 or Net 60 are nothing more than extending credit to your clients. In other words, your company is financing your customers’ purchases. The longer that it takes to be paid by your customer, the larger the debt that you finance.

Every company has a cash cycle, and depending on the business that you are in, there are more or less components to that cash cycle. Let’s take a company that distributes materials to other businesses. Here is a view of their cash cycle:

1. Purchase materials on credit terms (Net 30, 60, etc.) from suppliers
2. Hold in inventory
3.Repackage and sell to customers on credit terms (Net, 30, 60, etc)
4. Paid by customers
5. Pay suppliers

Now, this is a simplified cash cycle, but you get the idea. Obviously, if your customers are slow to pay you and you must pay your suppliers, you could be in for a shortfall of cash. Actually, one of the greatest risks to a startup or small company that is trying to grow is running out of cash while the business is expanding quickly. We should also note that there are other expenses (salaries, benefits, office space or utilities) that must be paid even if your customers are not quick paying you.

That brings us to the concept of Working Capital. Working Capital is the amount of cash that your company needs to have available in order to keep the cash cycle going or better put, to keep the company going. Working Capital is usually tracked in a type of spreadsheet known as a Capital Balance Sheet (which is a bit different than a Balance Sheet).

In a regular balance sheet, capital is kept above and debt below. In a capital balance sheet, a certain portion of debt is brought above. Here is the outline of a how to calculate Working Capital in a simple capital balance sheet:

Receivables (what your customers owe you)
+ Inventory
+ Current Assets
– Payables (what you owe your suppliers)
= Working Capital

Working capital represents the cash that a company needs to keep on hand to operate with receivables, inventory and payables. Receivables represent the cash that you have invested in materials and financing your clients. Payables are what your suppliers have invested in your company.

If the company sells $10,000 worth of materials in a month, 50% at Net 30 and 50% at Net 60, it means that they will not collect any cash for at least 30 days (if the customer pays on time!), and some of it not for 60. Even so, after expenses they might show a net profit of $1,500. There’s the rub, the net profit is not cash in the bank! If the company has bills to pay this month (or salaries) they must use the cash flow from previous sales to pay.

A startup company, in particular, will have problems if as they grow they do not have adequate cash in the bank to pay for expenses while waiting for cash to flow from sales. Often, a portion of the original investment capital in a new company is put aside for Working Capital; other means of having working capital at the ready could include a line of credit.

This is precisely what is meant by being adequately capitalized. Working with investors, bankers and others, the company’s executives must ensure that they have the cash in the bank to operate or they will literally be “out of business”!