Know Your Numbers
- Not meeting your sales targets: Do you have the right marketing strategy and sales team? Do you offer the right product or service mix?
- Not containing costs: Do you have a handle on your business expenses and keep them under control? Are you racking up bad debts due to poor collections?
- Spread too thin: Are you working 100 hours a week and making bad decisions because you’re not getting enough sleep?
- Not exploiting opportunities: Could you grow your sales and profits by buying more inventory, adding personnel/equipment or expanding your operations?
- Not managing your cash properly: Do you sometimes run low on cash and have to postpone disbursements or purchases? Is your working capital too puny to optimize your revenues?
Prepare a Plan
- A roadmap to execute the expansion, including acquisition of new equipment, fixtures and other assets
- Estimated one-time costs and new fixed costs, including financing costs
- Anticipated changes to sales and margins
- Amount of downtime expected
- Timeline and strategy for recruiting additional staff
- Anticipation of things that could go wrong and how much will be held in reserves
