When Kate came to me, she was behind on her business rent and had borrowed money from her mother to pay her staff in advance of getting the Jobkeeper supplement. Plus she was paying her staff more than she was paying herself.
Kate felt deeply ashamed she had to borrow money from her mother and was motivated to take back control. She was adamant that this experience was never going to happen again and inspired to take action to do something about her circumstances.
Kate demonstrated key traits of a creative thinker. A creative thinker is someone who desires to make change and knows that the ways she has done things in the past need to be different. She is open to new ideas, wants to be challenged and is interested in finding the right strategy for her unique challenges.
A creative thinker wants to feel confident and in control, knowing she’s doing things to maximise her profitability.
A handful of small changes isn’t enough. Profitability transformation is needed!
I took Kate through my 5 Step Profitability Transformation process to take control of her money, create value for her effort and maximise her impact.
First, she unburdened herself of the story of her business, so we were both clear on where she was now and what her goals were for the future.
Second, we analysed her finances to see where her money was really going. One of the things this highlighted was that the admin staff hours were gradually increasing, while the amount of income generating work wasn’t. So Kate learnt that this was an area where she needed to take more control.
Our next step was to plan what Kate needed to do to achieve her goals. We designed a plan of what Kate needed to sell, at what price, and what her expenses would be, making sure it worked on paper.
Because if it doesn’t work on paper, it isn’t likely to work in real life by accident.
Then we put it all together and implemented her new strategy, using the Profit First cash flow and money behaviour management tool. This uses bank accounts to separate money into buckets for every important purpose in the business.
And finally, Kate learnt how to review and adjust the plan, to keep everything working for her.
Six months on, she was up to date with the rent and had paid her mother back. She was determined never to get behind in the rent again, so she opened a bank account just to put aside money for the rent, so she would always have enough. In addition, she knew she needed two full time income earning staff to break even and a third (and more) would give her the income and profitability she desired to support her lifestyle.
You too can achieve these results. An inspiring first step to support you to have the same kind of experience Kate had is to download your copy of The Profitable Business Plan for Creative Thinkers to help you. To access your free copy, click the button below.