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E-Myth – “Why most small businesses don’t work & what to do about it”

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Edmonton Business Plan | Reading A Financial Statement Ratio Analysis


It is not necessarily enough for entrepreneurs to be reviewing their financial statements alone says Edmonton business plan. While most entrepreneurs have been told over and over that it is extremely important that they are reviewing their financial statements on a regular basis, it is not enough to just be reviewing their financial statements. While they are able to get extremely good financial information from this report such as the margins in their business, profitability expenses, revenue, and even projected cash flow shortages, if business owners are looking only at their financial statement, there only getting the financial side of their business picture.

The reason why this is a problem is that if business owners discover any revenue problems in their business such as a projected cash flow shortage, how can a business owner come up with solutions to that problem simply by continuing to look at the financial information. It is not going to tell a business owner what they need to change in their business to affect that number positively, it is not going to be able to the business owner what they need to do says Edmonton business plan. As much as they can analyse and over-analyze their financial statement in their business, all is going to tell them is what their finances are doing, and not have to make changes to that.

Edmonton business plan says that this is where key performance indicators come in and why they are so very important to business owners. Key performance indicators are quantifiable and trackable numbers that include numbers that are not included in the financial statements of the business. Entrepreneurs need to be tracking this number in their business whether they are having revenue problems or not. The reason why this is so is that they are going to be able to help an entrepreneur figure out what needs to change in their business in order to fix the revenue problems or help increase the revenue in their business. For example, if a business owner has seen that there is a revenue shortfall in their business, the following key performance indicators can help entrepreneurs fix that issue. The number of Google reviews their business has, how much money they are spending on advertising, how much content their website has, and how many leads their online advertising generates. Looking at these indicators, business owners can see if the lack of results as contributed to their revenue shortfall, or if these numbers are indicating that they are doing everything right, a business owner can look at different key performance indicators to figure out what is happening in their business.

By knowing ahead of time with key performance indicators a business owner should be reviewing alongside their financial statements every single week, business owners can proactively run their business, understanding that as you notice things happening in their financial statement, they can make changes based on their key performance indicators.

It is extremely important that business owners understand how to read and review their financial statements according to Edmonton business plan. Even though many entrepreneurs often struggle with getting accurate financial statements as well as understanding those financial statements, completely understanding these financial statements is not necessarily enough to help the business owner avoid problems in their business. The reason for that is because as good of the information as they get in their financial statement ratio analysis is, tell them is the state of their finances, and not how to affect changes in their business.

For example, if a business owner discovers that they have a projected cash shortfall in their business, Edmonton business plan says that whether how much analysing of the financial statement that a business owner does, that is not going to help them figure out why there is a cash short flow, or what they can do to fix it. However, if business owners have key performance indicators in their business that they are tracking, they will be able to see through these quantifiable numbers, what is going on in their business and what changes they can make that can impact the revenue in their business.

Many entrepreneurs tend to continue to over-analyze their financial statements instead of looking elsewhere in their business for the answer, business owners need to understand that by discovering there is not enough revenue in their business, continuing to finalize the financial numbers is not going to help an entrepreneur figure out why that revenue is that low only can change it.

There are some examples of KPIs that entrepreneurs can track in order to fix the decreased revenue, or revenue shortfall issue. For example, the number of Google reviews a business has. The reason why this is a key performance indicator for businesses and their revenue is that 88% of all likely customers check Google before making their purchasing decision. Businesses that have less than 40 Google reviews are taken as seriously as other businesses that have 40 or more. Therefore, if the business has diminishing revenue in their business, if there able to look at their key performance indicator and see that the number of Google reviews they have been getting has dramatically dropped off, that can indicate Edmonton’s business plan that there is a problem there.

A business owner can come up with a strategy for how to increase the number of Google reviews they have, and then they will be able to review their financial statements on a regular basis to see if that solution is affected the right amount of change for them. Other key performance indicators for revenue generation issues is how much content they have on their website. The reason this is important says Edmonton business plan is because the more website content the business has, the higher up in Google reviews they are. Other key performance indicators can include how much money they spend on advertising, how many impressions they have for each of their advertisements online, the number of clicks they get on it and then how many leads that those clicks generate.