As you and your organization navigate or enter the season of annual business planning, we want to help you turn meaningful commitments into measurable financial outcomes shared with leaders and team members in the form of next year’s goals. An essential part of this process is budgeting. Budgets make initiatives real as you outline how these decisions should impact your revenue, expenses, and profit.
In this episode, we’re going to help you build a plan for your company’s money by teaching you how to create an annual budget for your business. While this may not be the sexiest topic, it is the difference between break-even, a black hole, or a growing bottom line. To help you build or refresh your budget BELAY’s COO and former CFO, Lisa Zeeveld, is going to break down the essentials of a business budget and walk us through the budgeting process she’s perfected over the years.
You’ll never know what you can afford if you don’t know how much money you’ll have. As you forecast revenue, consider your business’s seasonality, how many leads are in your pipeline, how long it takes you to close these leads, and when money will arrive in your account based on your business model. Reference industry experts and benchmarks for your initial forecasts as you get started if your company doesn’t yet have historical data.
With your revenue projected for the next 12 months, decide what percentage of what you earn will pay for the product or service to be produced (cost of goods sold) and what rate you want to keep for profit. Allocate the remaining percentage to operating expenses such as marketing, IT, and employee burden costs like salaries, benefits, taxes, etc. The projected revenue and the fixed percentages will give you and your team an actual dollar amount to plan around.
Implement a zero-based budgeting process, which Investopedia.com simply describes as a method of budgeting where “budgets are then built around what is needed for the upcoming period, regardless of whether each budget is higher or lower than the previous one.” Instead of merely giving your leaders and team members a sum of money to use the entire year, ask your team to create a budget and request funds based on what they need to achieve their objectives. Most organizations have leaders develop budgets based on what’s allocated for their area. Modern business culture often perpetuates the myth that leaders must spend what’s in their budget so their department doesn’t lose it or so they can justify getting more the next fiscal year. Don’t let this type of behavior take root in your organization
BELAY client Geoff Welch and his BELAY Virtual Assistant Trúc Towns talk with Tricia about their experience of learning to work together and their top tips for getting started working with a Virtual Assistant. Geoff also explains how delegation has allowed him to play to his strengths in both his career and his personal life.
In today’s fast-paced and interconnected world, harnessing the power of technology and artificial intelligence has become essential for businesses and professionals aiming to thrive in their respective fields. Today, we have the privilege of hearing from a remarkable duo who have embraced the potential of AI to enhance their productivity and streamline their work processes.
Wes Gay is a StoryBrand Certified Guide, Agency Owner, and Private Workshop Facilitator. And since 2016, he’s helped hundreds of organizations find clarity with StoryBrand. Jodi Reiter is an accomplished Executive Assistant, bringing a wealth of experience from the marketing, advertising and photography industries as she supports Wes. They sat down with Ryan to share their experiences, strategies and success stories in utilizing AI to collaborate more efficiently and achieve remarkable outcomes. Listeners will learn about the most impactful AI tools on the market and how to weave them into your daily workflow.
Today on the podcast, we have a special episode courtesy of our friends at the Maxwell Leadership Podcast. BELAY CFO Lisa Zeeveld sat down with Mark Cole recently to co-host an episode of the Maxwell Leadership Podcast about how to get time back as a leader.
