A short YouTube presentation by Donna Bordeaux explaining why managing a business by daily bank-balance checks is insufficient and outlining a smarter financial approach. Donna contrasts watching a bank balance to driving while only looking at a speedometer, emphasizes cash-flow visibility, profitability, and growth planning, and proposes the role of a Personal Financial Officer (PFO) — a service she offers — to guide business owners toward financial goals.
Are you looking at your bank account balance each day, each month and hoping there's enough there to manage your finances? What if I told you there was a smarter way to take control of your money and reach your financial goals? I'm Donna Bordeaux, and in today's video, I'm going to show you the smartest way to manage your finances and what that looks like. We all know that money can be complicated and it's easy to feel overwhelmed when you're trying to manage all of the aspects of running a business. So we're going to show you a plan to create an actionable strategy to get you on track with managing your money in your business and your finances effectively. So first, managing your bookkeeping is a big issue. Managing your business by looking at your bank account is like driving down the road, only staring at your speedometer in your car. You can't see what's in front of you, what's ahead. You need to know the full vision of the path in front of you to be able to manage your business effectively. You need to know what you owe, when it's due, and how much cash you'll need. You need to know who owes you and when you expect that money to arrive so that you can manage your cash flow picture. That's not the end of it. You need to be profitable. You need to be managing your profit as well. And that involves looking at the revenue versus the cost or your pricing strategies. You'll need to have a plan for growth, not just maintenance. You want to be looking to grow, not just fighting fires every day. You need to have a structure lined up to know how much you expect your revenue to be 12 months from now, three months from now. What are you trying to do? If you're just spinning your wheels every day, it's going to be hard to get ahead. Chances are your business will look the same in a year that it does today. I want more for you. I want you to be able to grow your business and look at your goals in your life and achieve those goals. And that's what an accountant can help you do. Most business owners don't have the skills to manage all of the financial picture of their business as well as operate it. So if you think about a bigger business, what would they do? They would have a CEO, which is your role as the owner. You're in charge of all the operations of the business. But they would have a cfo. Now, CFO is a big corporate identity and a big corporate thing. The CFO would be managing the cash, managing the profitability and the goals and expectations of the financials. What if you had a pfo? A personal financial officer? That's what I like to do for my clients is help them look at that big picture and be their guiding light to look at the growth and the goals that they want to achieve and help them get there. I will hold them accountable to making sure that they are achieving those goals or if the goals need to change and let's talk about it and change it. If you don't have that person helping you in your business, it's time to make a move. Today, I'd be happy to talk to you about how we will guide our business owners through their life of their business and help them achieve goals, not just maintain.
