The Financial Systems That Help You Scale
By Nina Kaufman, Esq.
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Your business numbers can seem like a foreign language. Sure, they’re speaking to you—all the time!—but do you understand what they’re saying? How can you learn to communicate with this essential part of your business?
In this episode, CFO and financial educator Jonathan Ankney shares simple steps to create the numbers-related systems any service business will want. He’ll also clue you in on the top financial questions business owners don’t ask—and should.
The Financial Systems That Help You Scale…
- Treat your financials like a learning foreign language. Grasp a new concept–or number–each day and resolve to use it. Financial understanding is made, not born, so it’s absolutely possible to achieve this vital skill.
- Look at your financial reports regularly. Don’t leave this to your bookkeeper or your accountant. Ask them to show you what all of the numbers mean and how they pertain to your business.
- Define what information from your financial reports you need to help you make good financial decisions. Examples include how many customers you have, the average overhead for a given project type, and how much is outstanding in accounts receivable. From there, you can choose the appropriate technology, software and staff that will allow you to access and evaluate this information.
- Develop new skill sets, if needed. Read guides to understanding financials, hire a financial consultant to help you, take a paid course, or find other ways of learning the skills you need to grow and improve your business’s financial future.
Getting financial clarity is vital for service business owners. If you aren’t sure what’s outstanding and how much you’re bringing in and letting out, you won’t be able to properly budget or frame your growth plan. If you want your business to become more profitable and financially savvy, make sure you listen to Jonathan Ankney on this episode of Cash Out BIG!
Jonathan Ankney works with service business entrepreneurs to help them grow their businesses by giving them clarity about what the numbers reveal about how their business is doing, and partnering with owners as their chief financial officer. His work includes preparing and interpreting financial reports to make informed decisions, setting up tailored financial systems to meet the business’s needs, training staff and owners on how to use the systems for consistent and accurate results, and relieving owners of the minute and boring details of making finance work smoothly.
Jonathan has developed a financial education blog with videos and documents to help businesses become more profitable as well as explain financial tools and concepts in non-technical language, tapping into his journey from musician to financial executive to bridge the gap for his audience. He is especially passionate about keeping the focus of everyone and every financial activity on profitability instead of on taxes.
He is an active Toastmaster, an avid bicyclist, and serves on the finance committee of the parish of Calvary-St. George’s in Manhattan. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1994 with an MBA in finance and arts administration.
Favorite Quote:
“Your small business is your biggest investment.” ~ Jonathan Ankney
Learn more about Jonathan Ankney:
Corporate identity: www.sbcfo.com
Education web site: www.yourmoneyandyourbusiness.com
Facebook page: Your Money and Your Business — https://www.facebook.com/ymayb/?fref=ts
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