Months 13+: Grow Your Business With Strategic Financial Management.
This is the final piece of a three-part series on how to properly start up a new business with strong financial roots. Check out Part I and Part II of this series if you missed them, which looks at your organization from Months 1 to 3, and Months 4 to 12. This post will look at Months 13 + of your new business.
Once you hit Month 13 of your business, you have a full-fledged Adult Business. Congratulations! But like any adult, it goes through its further states of development. Remember when you were in your 20s? Sure you were an adult, but you still had a lot to learn about the “real world” and chances are you changed quite a bit as you entered your 30s, 40s, and 50s. Such is the case with a business. Your new adult business has a lot of real world experience to go through, so make sure you are constantly supporting and guiding it with strategic management. Only by doing this can you ensure that your business will live a long and healthy life…and that you will feel fulfilled and reap the rewards from it.
Here are the five things that you need to do to steer your business to success:
- Open Line of Credit: Open at least one line of credit (e.g. a credit card with rewards points) to start establishing your business credit. Your business will most likely be losing money in the first few months so having a line of credit to tap into is imperative. Your management accountant can help you evaluate and select a good line of credit.
- Hire Employees: As your business matures, it’s time to hire employees. This comes with a whole host of additional obligations, so make sure your management accountant is ready to open your new employer tax accounts, establish payroll processing systems and timesheet systems (QuickBooks has a great one built into it), onboard employees…and most importantly…work with your attorney to draft your human resource policies and procedures.
- Outsource Accounting Department: Odds are you’ve been doing your own bookkeeping and accounting for the last few months, and just using your management accountant as a consultant. Now is the time to remove these duties from your plate. Ask your management accountant to start managing the day-to-day accounting needs of your business: transaction entry, reconciliations, invoicing and collections, paying bills, managing cash flow, etc. Free up your time to manage and grow your business.
- Establish Sales & Marketing Systems: Sales is the fuel of your business – without a solid sales system, your business will soon run out of gas. Work with your management accountant to establish the sales goals that you will need to achieve your overall business and personal goals. Then hire a sales and marketing firm to set up the systems that will lead to the achievement of these goals.
- Analyze & Course Correct: You should periodically pause and do a pulse check on the business. Is it going the way you thought? Or does it need to be course-corrected? Your management accountant is your Chief Financial Officer, and will be indispensable in helping you answer and tweak your business as needed. As your business grows in complexity, you should consider hiring a certified business coach. It’s very easy to get caught up in the day-to-day weeds of running your business. A coach can help you take a step back and see your business from a high-level perspective, and help you make strategic decisions to position yourself for success. :
These can be daunting tasks, especially as the demands on your plate start growing. So don’t go at this alone! Build a strong team of professionals to help you build your business and you will be successful. We have a lot of experience in helping businesses get established and grow, and have special products designed specifically for start-up businesses (along with all the QuickBooks training and support you need). So if you’re ready to hire a management accountant and learn about QuickBooks, then schedule a free consultation with us and let’s chat.