Managing the Business

Businesses require strong and careful management if they are to flourish and prosper. As an owner-manager you are ultimately responsible for ensuring that your staff receive their statutory entitlements relating to holiday, sick pay etc. You also have to ensure that FSS, NI, VAT and Income Tax are dealt with efficiently and that health and safety regulations are adhered to. Examine your  internal controls to ensure that everything is in place and up to date.


Managing Money

Weak financial management is a key cause of business failure. Only by keeping a tight rein on your financial control can you ensure that your business is in a position to prosper.

Make sure that you have a good understanding of how the business is doing. Your audit can provide a wealth of information to help you assess future needs.

Keep a close eye on your cash position, making sure you have effective credit control to manage your debtors. Profit is an important measure of how your business is doing, but without good cash flow it will struggle.

If you trade overseas, you will need to introduce measure to control the exchange risk.

And remember, when making any financial decision - either at corporate or personal level - tax considerations need to be taken into account.


Managing IT

Information technology is now an everyday part of business life. However, despite its many advantages, IT also brings a whole new set of controls that the owner-manager must address.


Managing New Projects

A new project could be any new initiative to which you have committed time and money, such as a new product line which you started importing this year or that new outlet you opened last month. Projects usually fail for two reasons: inadequate planning prior to launch or poor performance management subsequently. With a proper business plan you should be well guarded against the perils of poor planning. Once the project is underway, you then need to monitor performance for that project separately so that any problem can be addressed immediately. You may therefore need to make adjustments to your reporting systems to make sure you get accurate project-specific information on a timely basis and react accordingly.