posted on February 11, 2009 10:30
CONSISTENT IMPROVEMENT
Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Phelps is an amazing swimmer. He holds the record for the most gold medals won at a single Olympics with a total of eight. He also holds seven world records and 14 career Olympic gold medals, the most won by any Olympian. Overall, Phelps has won 16 Olympic medals and 48 career medals: 40 gold, 6 silvers, and 2 bronze. How did he do it?
He sought out All-American Swimming Coach, Bob Bowman. Phelps had persistence, dedication, and vision; however, he lacked the training and systems to improve his performance. Phelps understood he needed more guidance—guidance from the best.
Under Bowman's tutelage at the North Baltimore Aquatic club, Phelps won five World Championship gold medals. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Bowman coached, guided, and motivated Michael Phelps to achieve 8 Olympic Gold Medals—a first in Olympic history.
Consistent improvement takes persistence, dedication, vision, and systems that measure results and track performance. Coaches train and test professional athletes both mentally and physically to help them reach their greatest potential. Management Accountants and Consultants use the same principles when turning businesses into successful entities.
Managing Business Systems
As business consultants, we understand the complexities of running your own business. Developing and managing business systems can be difficult and time consuming. Many businesses are finding it hard to implement systems that will help their company grow consistently and profitably.
Working with you as a member of your team, we will help you reach your goals by creating and implementing the systems for you. We measure and track performance regularly to help businesses beat their own past performance, as well as their competition. We want your company to set new records, save more time, and achieve real results.
Dramatically Improve Cash Flow
The rainmakers, or good sales people, are the ones who create streams of income for the company. As multiple streams are created, rivers begin to form and build. What happens if that river (money) is not contained within stable barriers when a hurricane hits? It would be like Hurricane Katrina when the levies on the dam broke causing a devastating disaster.
Approximately 15 million people where affected by Katrina: 400,000 jobs were lost, 1,836 people were killed, 275,000 homes were destroyed, the city was filled with disease, and it cost the U.S. Economy more than $110 billion dollars. It was the costliest hurricane in U.S. History.
This is the way many businesses are run today. The money comes in, while cash flow and accounting for the money is often ignored. Ignoring the accounting side of your business can be just as devastating. It is absolutely critical to design and construct a dam (accounting system) strong enough to support your company and its reservoir.
When the market bears down, competition attacks, or a disaster knocks on your company’s door, how are you going to protect your business from potential disasters? Controlling the flow that runs through the dam is important in preparing for such disasters. It’s important to control the flow so that streams of income have time to build up a reservoir supply for your business. By using the control valve on your faucet, you can slow the flow as needed for the financial operations of the business.
Our Profit Experts can help you dramatically improve cash flow by managing where the money goes, how it can be used, and when it will be distributed to run day to day operations. They will show you how to grow your business geometrically by creating multiple streams of income rather than just one. They will establish a strong accounting system to slow the flow of cash leaving the business and assist you in generating powerful opportunities and strong financial reserves.
Maximize Employee Performance
Employees will always do what is in their own best interest. By establishing a reasonable base pay, your employees will feel more secure and your retention levels will increase. Once a basic base pay has been established, you can then implement a performance and bonus paid program.
Building a performance paid program for sales people and production staff is easier than paying administrative staff. It allows you to more fully control the costs associated with each employee and improve employee performance. Pay structures will differ with each department and business. Here is an example of a basic pay structure.
As you can see from the chart above, the base wages for a sales person are set at 40% of their annual pay as compared to 75% for administrative staff. Sales people typically earn 50% of their pay based on their performance. If they perform, they will be compensated. If they don’t, the company is not required to pay them any more than their base pay.
The process of changing pay structures needs to be handled very carefully. First, detailed job descriptions and guidelines need to be established. Second, pay for similar positions should be the same for each employee. Make sure each employee knows exactly what is required of them in order to receive their base pay, performance pay, and bonus pay. Ask for your accountants help and seek advice from other companies or advisors who have successful programs that are already established. Remember, employees will test every decision made that affects how they are paid.
Tracking and measuring performance on the job can save companies literally thousands of dollars each year. Companies can also dramatically increase profits and improve performance by calculating and adjusting for the costs associated with each job, product, or services they provide.
Our Profit Experts will help you maximize your employee and overall company performance, and guide you towards your career goals just like Bob Bowman helped Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Phelps achieve his.