What Is Your Next Step?

I recently completed a Keynote Address at the Amelicor Corporation’s DHIA Conference in Las Vegas entitled “The Three Pillars of Financial Success.” It was a great conference.

In my presentation, I reviewed what I feel are the three most essential items to your business success as you move forward:

• Protect the Balance Sheet – Our primary objective here is to build your Working Capital (Current Assets – Current Liabilities). This can give you lots of options, since it means you have or will have cash on hand. Further, if your Loan to Value %’s are in line (65% Herd Loan, < 100% on your Feed Line & no more than 65% LTV on your Real Estate Loans), you have opportunities, if needed, to restructure your debt obligations.
• Build Your Banking Relationship – Finding and keeping a strong banking team around you is getting more & more difficult. The best way to do this is to maintain the same banker, and sometimes the best way to achieve this is by making his or her job easier. How can you do this? Provide them with monthly inventories, which is not that difficult if you are using feed programs like Easy Feed, Feed Watch or the many others available to you. Just complete a physical count 2X per year to ensure that your numbers are accurate. Also, share your Year-to-Date monthly Cash Flows with the bank & then verify your results with CPA Prepared Financial Statements to let them know how you are doing and to assist them when you need some help.
• Guard Your Cash Flow – Why would you want to do this? Let me give you five good reasons. First, you will feel more in control, which is far better than feeling out of control… Second, if you measure it, you will understand it. If you understand it, you can control it better, and if you can control it, you can improve it. Third, if you take this seriously, you will get enthused and start to think “Why ever have a negative cash flow?” Fourth, you can discuss these results with your Team and evaluate what you can do to make results even better, because they want you to succeed. Finally, you can discuss this with your vendors. They, too, want you to succeed. In fact, they need you to succeed.

So, what is next for you?

Do you want to expand your operation? You will need all three of these items to acquire the financing you need. Are you positioning yourself for a sale? Focus on the first one, strengthening your Balance Sheet. Would you like to hold and simply boost your efficiencies? Look at all three pillars and decide what steps you should take to make the improvements you want, going forward.

Regardless of your choice, all three pillars can make the difference between reaching you objectives or falling short of your goal.

What is the Next Step for you? Please let me know if I can help you. You can reach me at john@success-strategies.com, and consider the following advice:

“There ought to be ways of reforming a business, other than by merely putting more money into it.”

Winston Churchill

Let’s take your business to the Next Level!