cash

August 29, 2017 by fiscaldoctor

Business Growth Strategies

BusinessTown gave me the link below to share on my video .

In a world where you really don’t have all the money, people, and time you want, where should you look for either a blind spot to avoid or a place you can build on as a strength. I have five comments I’m going suggest today.

Know Where You Make Your Money

Know How to Spot Change

Know How to Plan for Change

Understand Opportunity Cost

Know When You Are Kidding Yourself

Normally when I do an interview, people ask me either what I am concerned about or what I am telling my clients at this time. So here are three things I’m going to suggest you consider. First, where might you be taking one of your key stakeholders for granted a little too long? Perhaps it’s an employee, a customer, the bank, your key people, your spouse, or a friend. Next, where is your cash going to be six months from now? And third, where is there a little itty-bitty 75-pound scrawny gorilla happily and contentedly growing up ignored until they’re going to become the 800-pound gorilla at the absolutely worst time possible? It’s pretty inexpensive to give yourself a very reasonable fiscal checkup to see where you need to diagnose or treat for wellness.

Business Growth Strategies with the Fiscal Doctor. Originally Appeared on BusinessTown

June 20, 2017 by fiscaldoctor

National Contract Management Association Recommends ERM Expert

Gary W. Patterson’s Hot-Off-the-Press Book, Stick Out Your Balance Sheet and Cough

September, 2009, Ashburn, Virginia – National Contract Management Association (NCMA) has added to its Recommended Reading List Gary W. Patterson’s book, Stick Out Your Balance Sheet and Cough: Best Practices for Long-Term Business Health. Patterson is an enterprise risk management expert and sought-after speaker. In his newly released book, the author warns: “What You Don’t Know about Your Business Can Cost You Your Business.”

As FiscalDoctor^®, Patterson’s book contains the same practical advice and tools that he uses in his everyday practice to help companies grow while managing risk in an increasingly challenging economic environment. To this end, he helps leaders identify internal problems from inventory mismanagement, outdated and incomplete financial reports, and false accounting assumptions to external forces like misreading the market, losing competitive advantage, and missing golden opportunities.

About NCMA NCMA was formed in 1959 to foster the professional growth and educational advancement of its members. NCMA’s goal is to lead and represent the contract management profession. Its vision is that enterprises will succeed through improved buyer–seller relationships based on common values, practices, and professional standards. NCMA’s mission is to improve organizational performance through effective contract management. www.ncmahq.org.

About Gary W. Patterson Gary W. Patterson, president and CEO of FiscalDoctor^®, has been a high-growth consultant for more than 200 companies spanning technology, supply chain and service industries. His clients include startups, Inc. 500, and middle-market companies worldwide. Patterson is a well-known speaker on ERM, corporate governance, risk analysis, leadership and the impact of renewable energy on the world economy.

His recently published book, Stick Out Your Balance Sheet and Cough: Best Practices for Long-Term Business Health is targeted to CEOs and business leaders of companies who are managing growth while struggling with the reality of these challenging economic times. The book is available on Amazon.com. For more information on the FiscalDoctor, visit his website at www.fiscaldoctor.com. Patterson also offers a “free” fiscal fitness test at www.fiscaldoctor.com/fiscaltest.html. He can be reached at 678-319-4739.

November 17, 2015 by fiscaldoctor

Funding: Get “the money” people to follow you

Follow the money is an interesting concept both for becoming more profitable AND getting lender or investor dollars.

It is easy to agree you need to become more bankable or interesting to an investor or buyer. Extremely hard to do without an outsider expert supporting your process.

What are the best things you have done in the past to become more interesting to check writers?

What is the biggest mistake you made along the way?

http://daily.financialexecutives.org/access-to-better-capital-drives-the-mid-market/

November 2, 2015 by fiscaldoctor

Are you starting to coast on past success?

Consider the Wall Street Journal article link below as a wake-up call about where your business may be getting a little too comfortable on past success. Granted you should pat yourself and your people on the back for what you did last quarter.

But if they still are basking in the pat on the back for last year, a wake-up call may be coming. Wonder if the competition one or two slots behind you is coasting? Or are they working harder to seize an opportunity to pass your business on the next turn?

When was the last time you conducted an offsite strategic workshop session, rolling budget update or just looked for the Million Dollar Blind Spot: Before it Finds You?

http://blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2015/10/07/earnings-growth-slowing-for-private-middle-market-companies/

risk assessment to uncover opportunities to accelerate and risk to minimize

October 12, 2015 by fiscaldoctor

Jump Start Your Next Quarter with Gary Patterson’s Crucial Best Practices

Gary’s incoming year strategies can help you help you turn greater profit (as you increase the likelihood of achieving targeted revenues) while managing risk (by spotlighting formerly invisible pitfalls like looming cash shortages) to help improve your cash flow (CASH will be emperor again this year), in a similar manner as I have also achieved with other organizations.

As I see it (and you may too), the economic downturn has been a transformative game changer, whereby the winners (real survivors) will be those business leaders who will pay attention to tomorrow and thoughtfully pursue the golden opportunities that are waiting to be discovered.

Here are 10 paths to CYA that you can follow in order to achieve a head start on making 2015 a surprisingly great year.

1. Review the 3 best opportunities you could create longer term, and assess in great detail what you need to do to pursue them.

2. Ascertain your company’s 10 top customers not only in revenue but in terms of profitability. Ask yourself what complimentary or add-on products and services you can sell them to balloon your profits.

3. Analyze your staffing levels and determine whether you should staff on a “green field” basis. Ask yourself these questions: “If I were starting a new company, would I hire the same employees I have today? If I were to hire them, would I have them in the positions they are in today?” You may be surprised at your answers!

4. Learn which products are losing money and get rid of them immediately, or raise prices on these products/services.

5. Assess your short-term risk tolerance and develop a contingency plan to stop Murphy’s Law in its tracks — include as much detail as necessary to establish a clear picture in your mind.

6. Examine the 3 top longer-term risk areas of your business today, and focus on how you will respond when those concerns materialize. Since J P Getty, one of the richest people in the world used this approach, it can benefit you too.

7. Evaluate the 3 most crucial infrastructure issues you will face over the next 2 years (key people or skill set needs, financing, or system and process upgrades).

8. Determine the cost of the risks you don’t know, such as potential inventory mismanagement, product defect or service quality problems, and inaccurate or unrealistic financial projection and statements.

9. Evaluate and improve the speed and quality of your cash flow and key metrics monitoring in order to prepare for a fast moving year.

10. Decide where you need an outsider to address the 800 pound gorilla issue everyone knows about, but no one wants to acknowledge.

I look forward to continuing our relationship in the next year and beyond, and also look forward to your success stories by implementing these upcoming year strategies.

Sincerely, Gary Patterson

Million Dollar Blind Spots and Best Practices for Long-Term Business Health

Thought for managing risk during these challenging times: “What is the cost of what you don’t know? $300,000, $1 million, $3 million or more?”

P.S. See and hear the FiscalDoctor now! http://tinyurl.com/ku2bh7

I’m also available to speak on my favorite subject, Avoiding the 3 Biggest Problems in Growing Your Business, so if you know a conference or associations that can benefit from having me speak, I welcome the referral. Or call me at 678-319-4739.

September 23, 2015 by fiscaldoctor

How good is your rainy day fund or preparation?

Not time to panic or run for the hills, YET. However when the drumbeat of reasons being discussed that could slow down or end what is already a 6 YEAR recovery are studied, it gives pause to think.

It does strongly suggest taking some chips off the table by addressing the plethora of small issues requiring time or money to resolve. Yet very few people seem willing to conduct a mini fiscal checkup, off-site strategic workshop planning session, or even looking at squirrels setting aside acorns for winter.

Boiling things down to simple terms, you always should be thinking about what business operations, processes or strategy can be improved. Most organizations have contingency planning, budget updates, quarterly review session, internal audits, enterprise risk management updates or operational risk management updates. If not, start with something simple, like the 5 question fiscal quiz available on my Fiscal Quiz tab.

If you are so entranced that you have forgotten that cycles always have expansion and downside phases, think back to what actions, situations or attitudes blindsided you in 2008. The pain you remember today may make some future tomorrow a lot less painful.