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Not only is it very important for an entrepreneur to understand all of the various expenses in their business says virtual CFO, but understanding that, can help an entrepreneur calculate the gross margin in their business which can help them avoid running out of money. Since running out of money is the second most common reason why entrepreneurs fail in Canada, learning what business owners need to do in order to avoid that can be very significant.
In order for an entrepreneur to calculate their gross margin, business owners need to understand the difference between direct expenses and general expenses. If an entrepreneur adds all of the expenses in their business up, they will get a skewed gross margin number, that will not help them. The direct expenses in their business say virtual CFO is all of the expenses that an entrepreneur will incur through taking the product or service that they sell. If an entrepreneur does not end up generating any sales, they will not generate these expenses. Examples of the types of costs that will be incurred for direct expenses include raw materials and labor, and these costs will fluctuate with sales.
General expenses in the business are all of the costs that an entrepreneur incurs just by having their business, whether they sell any products or not. Examples of general expenses include rent, Edmonton staff, and office supplies to name a few. These costs typically do not fluctuate very much from month-to-month, and definitely not with sales.
In order to calculate the gross margin in their business, an entrepreneur needs to take all of the revenue in that month and subtract all of the direct expenses from that. The amount left is the gross margin. The gross margin refers to all of the money that was made in the business and an entrepreneur needs to make enough gross margin in order to pay for all of their general expenses.
It is extremely important that an entrepreneur figures out what the gross margin is, and then how many products or services that they need to sell every single month in order to cover their general expenses. By understanding what this breakeven point is, entrepreneurs will have a goal that they can aim for in their business to avoid running out of money. By knowing how many products or services they have to sell every month says virtual CFO can help entrepreneurs reach that goal, which can help them avoid running out of money.
In order to help entrepreneurs avoid running out of money early on in their business, business owners need to learn early on what their general expenses and direct expenses are, and how to calculate gross margin. By learning how to do this early on, can significantly impact the success of entrepreneurs. Since 15% of all entrepreneurs fail in the first year, the sooner an entrepreneur can do this, the more impactful it can be to their business, and help them avoid running out of money in their first year.
It is extremely important that entrepreneurs learn how to calculate the gross margin in their business early on says virtual CFO. Since many entrepreneurs have not had any prior business ownership experience when they open their first business, understanding this early on is very important. In fact, the company that makes accounting software QuickBooks, Intuit did a survey of several small business owners and entrepreneurs in order to understand their business financial literacy. The respondents to the survey were asked questions about balance sheets, accruals and income statements for example. 82% of all business owners who responded scored lower than 70% on the test. This shows that many entrepreneurs struggle with understanding business finances, in helping them gain a deeper understanding that can help increase the success rates of entrepreneurs in Canada.
In order to understand the gross margin of their business, entrepreneurs first need to understand the revenue in their business and how to read their financial statements. Because if they do not understand their financial statements, they will be able to understand profit and loss, gross margin or overhead. The first thing that an entrepreneur should do is to understand they should have three or fewer revenue accounts in their business. Despite many entrepreneurs thinking that having more revenue accounts provides more information, virtual CFO says that it actually creates a lot more work for the entrepreneur and also increases the chances of an entrepreneur miss classifying revenue from one month to the next and ending up being less informative.
Also, if your revenue accounts that there are in business, means that the income statement can fit on a single page. It is important for the income statement to fit on a single page so that entrepreneurs can ensure that they can make good financial decisions simply and easily. The income statement does not fit on a single page, it may become more difficult for an entrepreneur to make that decision.
While it is important for entrepreneurs to ensure that they are including income that is not related to their core business and their finances, virtual CFO says that it is important that business owners do not include with their core business. There is a section for other income and expenses for things like gains on any investments entrepreneur has, dividends from their stock portfolio, or rental income from a property they own. However, if entrepreneurs include this in their revenue account in their business, it will interfere with the ability to calculate margin accurately. Having additional revenue will show the gross margin as hire and it should, and will make the business look more profitable than it is.
By understanding how to calculate gross margin properly, can help entrepreneurs understand the finances of their business, make decisions that can help them increase their business and increase the revenue. By learning this early on in their entrepreneurship, business owners can significantly impact the ability to avoid running out of money in their business and succeeding.
