S7 E25-E28 BE SURE YOUR BUSINESS WILL MAKE MONEY BEFORE YOU LAUNCH. PLANNING AHEAD LEADS TO SUCCESS. Jeremy Gray (Practical Solutions to Difficult Problems)

Jeremy Gray – Practical Solutions to Difficult Problems
IBGR. Network. The World of Business at Your Fingertips

Be sure your business will make money before you launch. Planning ahead leads to success.

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Episode 25 Controlling overheads is vital – How to create the right culture from Day One

There is never a time in a company's history when cost control can be relegated to the back burner, but for a startup company, keeping costs low is a vital necessity.

Felix Dennis English publisher, poet, spoken-word performer and philanthropist.

1. The day you run out of money is the day your business closes.
2. Time to break even will likely take longer than you thought
   1. There is always the unexpected 
   2. Until then you will have a negative burn rate – money is going out of your bank account faster than it is going in. 
   3. The smaller you can make this difference the longer you can keep going to overcome obstacles, modify your objectives and improve your business proposition.
3. Set the right culture from day one rather than wait until you are facing a brick wall. 
4. Walmart – a winning strategy Control your expenses better than your competition.
   1. This is where you can always find the competitive advantage. You can make a lot of different mistakes and still recover if you run an efficient operation. Or you can be brilliant and still go out of business if you're too inefficient.
   2. Make sure this is ingrained into your business
5. Check your assumptions about what is needed. 
   1. Colin’s story – Setting up his own investment company he believed he needed a prestigious office to attract wealthy clients. In fact, the opulent surrounding turned clients off. 
   2. Do not allow others to convince you to spend money. It’s your dollar. Know your budget and stick to it. It’s too easy to convince yourself that the next addition will pay off eventually
      1. You may go out of business before eventually arrives.
6. Consider how others may see your spending.
   1. Impact on potential clients
   2. The reaction of your employees
   3. Is it clear that spending is for the long-term benefit of the business?
   4. Focus spending on strengthening your company’s core competence
7. Walk the talk
   1. Make sure that your actions reflect your spending strategy
   2. Avoid vanity projects

​Link to article with photo of Jeff Bezos starting out. There is no luxury there!

https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/features/story/jeff-bezos-delivered-books-in-his-car-when-he-started-amazon-now-he-is-retiring-as-ceo-1765399-2021-02-03

Tags: How to start a business, achieve start up success, burn rate, cash management, expense control, working capital, the successful entrepreneur, business common mistakes small business start-up; avoid these common mistakes of business, mistakes in business, IBGR.network, Jeremy Gray, Practical Solutions to Difficult Problems

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Episode 26 Understanding your burn rate. This metric is key to your survival as a company

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery.”
Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield (1850) Written by Charles Dickens
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1. JIM SCHLECKSER the CEO of Inc. magazine’s CEO Project wrote in a 2017 article that when asked by a budding entrepreneur for three pieces of advice he replied.
   1. The first thing I told was not to run out of money.
   2. The second thing was not to run out money.
   3. And third, wait for it, was not to run out of money.
2. Burn rate is another name for negative cash flow. When money is going out of your bank account faster than it is coming in.
   1. Its important to understand that you can be profitable but still have a negative cash flow.
   2. More businesses have failed due to lack of cash than have failed due to lack of profits – the growth to bankruptcy syndrome.
3. Burn rate cannot be calculated from your Profit and Loss. 
   1. Many uses of your cash will not appear on your P&L such as capital investments, build up in inventories and accounts receivable.
   2. Beware of confusing advice – I read this line in an article about burn rate: “Put simply, you can’t go bankrupt if you make more money than you spend”. It’s true but you do need understand what you are making and what you are spending
4. Burn rate is your monthly outgoings. 
   1. Note that many articles describe your burn rate as your monthly operating expenses
   2. This is not the whole picture – if you are buying equipment, building up inventories these need to be included in your burn rate
5. Cash runway is your cash available divided by the burn rate,
   1. If you have $200,000 and are spending at the rate of $40,000 per month your cash runway in 5 months.
6. At launch it would be prudent to have at least 12 months of cash runway.
   1. This will give you time to build and test your MVP – Minimum Viable Product
   2. Generate initial sales:
      1. Note if you are using a penetration strategy, initial sales may not generate much margin and require you to invest in inventories. If you are selling on credit the money may not come in until later. 
      2. If you are selling on 30-day terms you can expect that payment will likely be 45 days later.
      3. You will book the sale in the month it is made but the cash may not arrive until the next or even the second month.
7. What is an acceptable burn rate? 
   1. There is no one size fits all answer. 
   2. In the first half of 2019 WeWork Revenues were $1.5 Billion and expenses were $2.9 billion. Some analysts were predicting that without further funding WeWork would run out of cash by the end of the year.
   3. If boot strapping you business you have finite funds and your burn rate must match your anticipated time to breakeven cash flow. And then some!
   4. If you are being funded then your cash runway should be long enough to at least prove your MVP and generate sales
      1. If you feel you may run out of cash talk to your investors early. Are they willing to put more cash into the business? Be prepared to justify your burn rate. 

 Tags: How to start a business, Achieve start up success, burn rate, cash management, expense control, working capital, the successful entrepreneur, business common mistakes small business start-up; avoid these common mistakes of business, mistakes in business, IBGR.network, Jeremy Gray, Practical Solutions to Difficult Problems

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Episode 27 – Spend your cash wisely – manage your burn rate.
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A penny saved is a penny earned – Benjamin Franklin

1. Ensure you know your burn rate and track it frequently – I would suggest a monthly at a minimum
   1. This means a monthly cash flow statement
2. Set up controls to ensure spending commitments are properly authorized
   1. Consider the use of credit cards – giving you the ability to check spending online at any time
   2. Insist on receipts
   3. Avoid petty cash
3. Structure your organization to reflect where you are in your business growth cycle.
   1. If you are still designing your product offering it is too early to be paying for sales and marketing personnel
   2. If you have only a few employees an in-house HR resource is probably unnecessary
   3. Have a hiring plan.
4. Identify your core competence and outsource the rest
   1. What is your secret sauce? What is going to make your company successful?
5. Manage your working capital (the necessary evil) intensely
   1. Negotiated extended terms with suppliers or attractive discounts for early payment.
      1. Ensure your systems enable you to take advantage of the discounts available and prevent duplicate payments
   2. Clearly set payment terms with customers at the outset
      1. This is the time to have that frank conversation.
   3. Avoid invoicing errors – consider e-invoicing
   4. Invoice promptly
   5. Keep inventories to a minimum. 
      1. Keep that warehouse small
      2. Track inventories to avoid losses due to shelf life or obsolescence.
      3. If you have unwanted inventory – sell it! Not only will this generate some income it will avoid disposal costs
6. Avoid long term commitments to maximize flexibility
   1. Short term leases – co working spaces
   2. Use contract employees for specific tasks
7. Use IT solutions to help visualize your cash position.
   1. License rather than buy.
   2. Locate a service provider who already has a license
8. Avoid staff churn – replacing staff is expensive, slows down progress and impacts morale
9. Tap into every resource that is available to you:
   1. If boot strapping, call on ex colleagues with skills you need
   2. If VC backed they may have experts that can help for free or at modest rates.

Tags: How to start a business, achieve start up success, burn rate, cash management, expense control, working capital, the successful entrepreneur, business common mistakes small business start-up; avoid these common mistakes of business, mistakes in business, IBGR.network, Jeremy Gray, Practical Solutions to Difficult Problems

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Episode 28 – The world of business has changed – what you need to know for success in 2022

The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change. 
Bill Clinton

1. No one would dispute that Covid 19 has changed to the world of business in every part of the world.
   1. The rules have changed – the way business is conducted is different – the rule of adapt or die has been ruthlessly enforced
   2. The need to be agile, transformational, adaptive which ever word you use will continue in 2022. Changes that have occurred in 2020 and 2021 will impact how we businesses operate in 2022.
2. Remote working will continue
   1. The rapid adoption of technologies to connect employees has shown that employees do not need to be in the same space to get things done.
      1. This includes creative work. More patents were issued in the US and UK in 2020 than in 2019.
   2. As an employer you need to consider your employees opinions about the transition from WFH to the office.
      1. Review what has worked and what has not worked. How remote working can be improved. Ergonomic issues may come to the fore.
   3. This is your opportunity to source talent globally. It is well known there is a lot of IT talent in India but many Asian countries has a pool of expertise – Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand just to name a few.
   4. Your Customer Service Rep could be in the Philippines
   5. With 5G being rolled out around the world connectivity will be even easier. 
3. Mobile Commerce becomes even more important.
   1. Your customers are out there, and they are on their phones.
   2. They are less likely to return to physical shopping for basic needs. A level of trust has been achieved making consumers much more willing to buy online
      1. As a SME you can improve the degree of trust consumers place on you by using some of e-retail platforms that are available. Find the one most appropriate for your business.
   3. Your competition has become more sophisticated in their online marketing you need to as well. Sloppy websites will not cut it. This is an area you should consider spending money.
   4. If you are in a niche segment, consider your company as a publisher of information.
   5. Micro and nano influencers often carry more weight with a targeted audience
   6. Rural consumers are a relatively untapped market
      1. Facebook still supports 2G – low data usage
   7. Offer expanded payment options. Consumers often abandon their shopping cart if their preferred payment option is not available
   8. Do not neglect cyber security. 
4. Consumers will increasingly demand social responsibility from their suppliers
   1. Social media means this is no longer a tick the box exercise
   2. Millennials and Gen Z will be the largest consumer group by 2030 and they will demand good governance
   3. Be conscious of what you say, do and post. A social media backlash can kill profits
   4. Any hint of discrimination against a minority group must be avoided
   5. Even more diversity will be demanded. VC funding is still heavily skewed to men. Funding for female founded startups was reported as being a low as 9% in 2019, Black entrepreneurs struggle to get access to capital
5.  Opportunities for eco friendly companies will grow rapidly.
   1. Cop 26 has shown that the world does worry about the environment – especially the younger generations.
   2. Although there is still a gap between people say they want and how they vote will their wallet. Focus on the environment will be good for your business and may open opportunities for growth.
   3.  From the World Economic Forum: 4 Questions you should be asking yourself
      1. What does my market look like in a net-zero world?
      2. What is my business model for succeeding in that market?
      3. What changes should I make now to prepare for success?
      4. What supporting conditions will I also need and how do I go about winning them

 

1. Those who act early can capture major opportunities and build a competitive advantage. CEOs who align their businesses to a net-zero future not only shield themselves from risks but also position their businesses for growth in new green markets.

1. Encouraging eco friendly practices can save you money
   1. Hotels and laundry costs, reusable containers for food delivery

Tags: How to start a business; Business trends 2022, e-commerce, Cop 26, diversity, eco-friendly Achieve start up success The successful entrepreneur; business common mistakes; small business startup; avoid these common mistakes of business; mistakes in business; IBGR.network; Jeremy Gray; Practical Solutions to Difficult Problems


I am committed to helping entrepreneurs succeed. I can bring the experience of 30+ years of experience at the C-Suite level in an MNC from Europe, North America, and Asia. Combine this with seven years of helping a diverse range of businesses and I can provide you with practical solutions to any difficult problems you may be facing. 

Please do not hesitate to contact me for chat via the following links:

mailto:jeremy@business-in-asia.org

Or schedule time via Calendly:
https://calendly.com/3-continents-consulting

My websites include:
https://business-in-asia.org/
https://thedentistscfo.com/

​My LinkedIn URL
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-gray1

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