3 Systems to Fast Track Business Growth and Boost Finances
Three systems.
That’s all you need to manage finances and propel your business growth...that sounds simple enough, right?
In theory, yes. However, one thing that I’ve learned during my years as a CFO for growing companies is that numbers and financial decisions can feel incredibly stressful and complicated.
Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be that way. You can absolutely grow a resilient, thriving small business without the fear of money-related decisions looming over you.
It truly all comes down to these 3 key systems (and the skills to use them):
Keep Meaningful Numbers
Make Decisions Informed by Facts
Take Consistent Action
A business runs like PURE MAGIC when it has a CEO with these three skills and the operating systems in place to spread this through the whole team. That’s a business that can create predictable, repeatable success.
Simple in theory: but we know it’s not always as easy in practice when it comes to your business.
Financial reports tend to be boring and unclear. Decision-making is murky. And your results are often hard to understand.
So, let’s break these business systems down a bit further.
What exactly are meaningful numbers?
Meaningful numbers are
Accessible,
Accurate, and
Up to date!
PLUS (and here’s the key), they are understood. They provide you, the business owner, with information that is useful and easy to act on.
Do you ever endlessly stare at your financial reports, not knowing what the heck you are looking at or why it matters, as you manage finances for your business? (Trust me, you’re not alone in this! Most business owners I know have been there.)
The numbers in those reports were NOT meaningful.
Those numbers didn’t stand a chance of informing your decisions or helping you grow a profitable business.
To be useful, your financial reports have to be connected to your strategy and presented in a way that makes sense to you and your team. Ripping out the jargon and helping business owners get to know, understand and use their numbers is our superpower at CFO on Speed dial.
The starting point for predictable, repeatable success in any business is meaningful numbers that are accurate, up to date, and easy for you to use and understand.
Use this 4-point path to create meaningful numbers and clear financial reports.
Clear decisions require judgment based in fact.
In a rapidly growing business, clear decisions are based on judgments that are informed by facts. People are notoriously bad at making decisions. Trusting your gut will lead you to the wrong decision more than 50% of the time. That’s why decision-making systems are so important.
You can improve your decision-making by creating structures and guidelines that walk your team members through how YOU want decisions to be made. Your company’s decision process should be created to fit your culture and your needs -- but the key steps in the process must include:
Defining the problem or obstacle you need to resolve,
Zero-ing in on the outcome you want,
Identifying possible solutions,
Gathering data about each option, and
Understanding the risks of each one.
Does it take time to create this system? Absolutely.
But, once you have it in place the process can be compressed into a checklist for simple decisions or expanded into a month’s long committee process for more complex decisions.
In the long run, having a system will make your decision-making more efficient and make you a better leader. High-performing companies are almost always led by people who hone the skills needed to quickly make clear decisions.
This is especially true when your business is in rapid growth mode — and you’re constantly faced with new opportunities, ideas, and variables. Having a systemized process to make decisions allows you and your team to navigate through changing situations with more ease and less risk.
Read this blog post for the 7 steps to an effective business decision making process.
Consistent action can be orchestrated with leadership and systems.
Taking consistent action means you have the systems in place to make sure that you and your team can take coordinated action on those decisions (big and small). This lets you move the company ahead on your desired plans and ensures everyone is heading in the same direction.
At CFO on Speed Dial we drive consistent results with a growth stack that includes:
Annual growth targets
Coordinated and transparent task management
And we make sure all of our clients develop a similar system for their business. This ensures that even with a virtual or dispersed team, everyone has a clear understanding of the company’s priorities and the importance of their role to the whole effort.
If your business gets stalled on moving from planning to action, start to change that with these tips on taking effective, consistent action in your business.
What does it look and feel like when your business has dialed in all 3: Meaningful Numbers, Clear Decisions and Consistent Action?
Most business owners excel at one, maybe even two of these, but the magic doesn’t really happen until you have all three systems working together.
It’s hard to imagine what it could look like to operate in this zone. Or worse, to figure out how to get there on your own!
So I break it down for you in a post describing the seven business owner archetypes based on how well companies are implementing each of these systems. (You may even recognize yourself in some of the examples.)
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10 tips you need to improve cyber-security for your business
How to choose the right bank, investor, or partner for your business — without sacrificing your social impact/social justice priorities
How and why to produce a Social Impact report along with your financials
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