Organised and evaluate. Two words that seem to send people screaming for the hills, certainly when it comes to their business and the financial performance thereof. In my experience people would prefer to keep their heads buried in the sand and pretend that everything is going to be ok than take a good long hard look at their business performance.

If your business is disorganised and financial information is all over the place (or worse non-existent) it would not give bankers, potential investors or even your customers comfort that you know what you are doing in your business. It is near impossible to begin to scale your business or even implement budgets and cashflow forecasting. All necessary tools if you are wanting to grow your business. And why would you NOT want to grow your business?

Imagine you have decided to drive from Johannesburg to Cape town. Would you drive there without any plan on the route to take? Would you be comfortable driving your car without ANY fuel gauge or speedometer or warning lights? I think we can all agree this would be a really silly and risky, even downright dangerous.

 An incredibly wise man told me recently that you can only deviate if you have a plan. So, you may plan to drive to Cape Town via Bloemfontein or Durban. You can change the plan, but the goal of Cape Town still stays the same. But you need a plan first. So why would you run a business without a plan and without financial information with which to assess its health?

 A good accounting system is the first step in getting yourself organised. From there you will have information on which to evaluate your business, makes it easier to look back in the past, as well, and make comparisons and finally PLAN. You can see if things are better or worse. And knowing your numbers is the fuel that keeps your business on the right road.

Time to get your head out of the sand……….