This is an unconventional article on a conventional topic - getting loans. Without knowing your business situation I will assume using cash instead of borrowing is an option. Here was my first lesson in small business finance - cash is your rarest resource and only use it to (1) buy an appreciating asset (building) or (2) something that generates revenue (new equipment). Otherwise do you need it? If the answer is yes, look at your financing options.

Podcast Topics;

Cash is a rare resourceType of incorporation determine the type of loansPurpose for getting a loanLeasing as an optionImpact on and by credit ratingAlternative financingNext podcast

Part 5 of the Finance Series focuses on three options:

Payment Processing

Factoring

Simple Borrowing

One of the biggest complaints I hear from clients and read about on online landscape forums is getting paid on time. This creates serious problems that negatively affect:

Meeting payroll.

Hiring new employees and not add pressure to existing staff.

Cash or credit to service sales - purchasing materials and supplies.

Funding marketing and gaining new customers.

Regardless of what options you choose for cash flow improvement or business funding, the one thing that remains critical is repayment of the money within the terms and conditions plus using prudent financial controls within your business.

Have questions about business financing or how to manage your ‘cash-flow’ like a pro? Reach out to GreenMark Consulting Group at www.greenmarkgroup.com or [email protected]. Steven Cohen is President of The GreenMark Consulting Group and has been a successful entrepreneur for over 4 decades building profitable landscape companies.

The last Green Industry Pros podcast (GIP14) covered Accounting & Invoicing with a reference to ABC or Activity Based Costing. Putting together an effective budget doesn’t require ABC but sure helps. We start this discussion with the types of budgets available to a landscape business owner and then focus on where to start. One last thought, a budget has two demands to be effective: accuracy and forecasting.

Types of Budgeting Systems.

Traditional: created for a period and uses the previous year as a starting point.Zero-based: every year starts from scratch. Last year provides insights but instead you start at zero.Flexible: ongoing adjustments based on sales forecasts and the impact on production projections.Rolling: it takes a year long view and at the end of every period (a month or quarter) it is dropped and a new month or quarter is added to maintain a 12 month budget.

Start with either the Traditional or Zero-based System, then as your competence and confidence increases move to Flexible and Rolling Budgets.

Now the question moves from the system to its use. This is a quick overview, and we choose the choices most appropriate for small landscape companies.

Your Options: Master budget, Operating budget, Financial budget, Cash budget, Labor budget, Capital budget, and Strategic. Our recommendation is to start with the operational budget and then add the cash budget.

In Article 1 we over viewed the documents you should receive monthly; whether provided by an accountant or from a software package. Article 2 focused on Staying Profitable. This article starts at the strategic level on the types of accounting and then moves to how to make it work for you.

There are 2 types of Accounting, Financial and Managerial. Financial Accounting is well known to most business owners. It meets the requirements of investors, creditors, and government taxing agencies. The standards for proper Financial Accounting in the United States are set by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). Financial Accounting is a legal requirement and you must play by its rules.

Managerial Accounting is not ruled by any standards except common sense. There are several models employed like ABC (Activity Based Costing) and are unique company to company. So what is it? It takes the same numbers and recasts it to track true costs by step, activity, product / service line, or customer. It provides you with the total cost of each step in a process.

At this point you should ask yourself - why do I need to know this? The why is your ability to answer the following questions:

Who are our most profitable customers?

What are our most profitable products (services)?

Are our products (services) correctly priced?

We are sure the following are universal rules for maximizing time at training, however if the people running the session are less than professional, the following will force theem to make it work your time.

Questions:

What is the major obstacle to your business being successful today?If you solve #1, what is the major obstacle to being successful in the future?How did the people develop the session materials? Test it? Up date it?What type of support can I expect after the session is over? (Both Free and Paid)

Bring:

copy of vision, mission, and value statementscopy of recognition & reward systemcopy of what is currently measuredcopy of back office support processescopy of human resource processescopy of marketing processescopy of sales processescopy of customer service processescopy of project management processes

This does not have to be extensive - one sheet per process will be sufficient. Here is our rationale: if you don't have these in place then the business is out of control, if its out of control profitability is almost impossible.

During our Boot Camp you will have the opportunity to build or modify core processes that will drive consistent performance.

Although this show is dedicated to landscape companies, these 4 cores are applicable to all businesses. The focus is on those landscape business owners planning to attend one of our upcoming Boot Camps in February.

4 CORES;

CORE 1: Guiding the BusinessCORE 2: Running the BusinessCORE 3: Getting the BusinessCORE 4: Doing the Business

Look for tomorrow show for to prepare for GreenMark Boot Camps.

Staying Profitable builds on Article 1 and drills down on 9 essential management disciplines for profitability. GIP Show 14 details the first Management Discipline - Line of Sight to Business Goals.

Terms

variable costsfixed costs

Mindset

On or Under BudgetFrugality

Methods

Hold a training session and educate everyone on how they affect profitability.

Rearrange your calendar and make 2 hours a week for meetings - no excuses. 1 Hour for field supervisors and 1 hour for internal employees.

Create or improve work orders (or whatever you want to call it) to include: (1) list of materials, the cost of the materials, a space for recording how much was used, a space to record why it is off budget; (2) list of employees working the job, estimated labor hours for the job, a space for how much was used, a space to record why it is off budget. Collect it at the end of the day.

Once a week meet with supervisors to discuss the work orders. There only 2 reasons you are over budget - bad estimates or poor supervision. This will be awkward but it is a discipline. Soon the supervisors will know what is expected of them which will impact how they control work.

Once a week meet with internal employees to discuss cutting costs. Pick a theme for the month, electrical usage for example, and challenge them to reduce it by 10%. Keep the theme until you have achieved the 10% or what is possible. Then move on to the next major cost area. Never stop, you are creating a culture of frugality that will increase profits.

Part of our Market Services offer is an ongoing research service. Part of this process requires a close examination of the economy to decide what forces are affecting your customers, and how will it affect their buying decisions. We combined several approaches (contained in our Business Primer) including stock picking; we built this economic cycle model.

The Economic Cycle

Based on the Wave Theory, the economy can be viewed as a series of waves with crests (tops) and troughs (bottoms) with two faces – Expansion and Contraction. When you add the economic principle of price communicating value, we divided it into 4 conditions:

Expansion where True Value is Greater than Market PriceExpansion where True Value is Less than Market PriceContraction where True Value is Less than Market PriceContraction where True Value is Greater than Market Price

The essence of business success is the ability to assess market conditions and the competition, create a winning strategy that your current resources can perform, and then executing it right the first time. What impact is the economy going to have on our business? How are our customers going to respond? How are our competitors going to respond? What impact will it have on our mix of products and services? This broadcast will cover gWORX 4 elements for conducting a market analysis.

Topics:

Regulatory - federal, state, and local government laws and regulations that will impact your industry and/or your customersEconomic - where is the global and national business cycle and it will impact your industry and/or your customersScientific - scientific & technological advances that will impact your industry and/or your customersZeitgeist - what is the prevailing "group think" that will impact your industry and/or your customers

Although this reads for the new company, the intent is your phoenix rising from the ashes - the company built on the same ground as the old.

There 4 Operating Principles that provide the foundation for success and growth:

Accountability

Feedback on Results

Peer Support

Planning as the CEO’s (you the business owner) Job 1

Why?

Over my 4 decades of business consulting with the large and the small plus years of researching organizational excellence, these 4 were found in every success story.