Your Money Machine

We will take a look back at the last season and recap how you can build a globally scalable, investable business based on the Founder Institute Pre-Seed Accelerator flagship program.

This episode is about sharing the most viable funding options available to new startups and how you can allocate the proceeds from fundraising. We will discuss the different types of investors and what they expect to see with respect to progress on team, product and traction. We’ll go over on how long it takes to raise the various funding types, how you can identify friendly investors to test your pitch on and how you will know when you are ready to fundraise.

In this episode, we will talk about growth such as how you can define success for your business, the various tactics for growing your business, and how you can set growth goals and growth milestones to make sure you're on track.

We will talk about what's an effective hiring process you can implement for a new business. We will also cover how you can determine what roles you need at the beginning of a business, how do you determine if you need a co-founder, how do you decide what to outsource and how you can source top hiring candidates that you already know.

This episode is all about product development and how you can develop a product roadmap for your solution. We will discuss the techniques you can use to speak with your target customers to get feedback on your solution. We will also cover what human resources you should have available to build a viable solution and how you can identify and engage with the human resources.

It’s important to prioritize your go-to market initiatives at the beginning of your business. We will discuss how you can evaluate different models for growing the business, the ways you can develop marketing messages that resonate with your target customers and the best techniques to test messaging and customer acquisition channels. 

Today’s show answers how much does the law actually matter to your business and the key legal concepts that a Founder needs to understand. We will discuss the best practices in setting up a legal entity, how you can pick a law firm to work with, how you can identify and protect your intellectual property and how you can manage regulations.

Branding and design can help you develop a memorable brand, logo and name that will resonate with your target customers. We’ll go over the characteristics that make a good name and brand, the infrastructure you need when you pick your name, and the social media platforms you should be looking to get your name into.

We will discuss the ways your business can survive before generating revenues and how you can identify the most lucrative revenue source for your business that is also attractive to your target customers.  We’ll also cover some common challenges in picking a revenue model and the ways you can test different revenue sources with your target customers.

Today’s show is all about helping you identify real customers and figure out whether they have a real problem that you can solve and what are the best tactics to identify target customers and encourage them to be interviewed for your market research. 

Today I’m joined by James Rolevink, Founder of Noah’s Bark, and we’re talking about his experience with the Founder Institute Pre-Seed Accelerator flagship program and how the program transforms an idea and turns it into a globally scalable, investable business using a logical roadmap that leads to success.

Vision and values are the two things that drive most companies in terms of their growth and their ability to move from being an income stream for the owner to becoming a globally scalable, investable business. Your vision is what will carry you through the hard times to push you to achieve the goals and the mission of your business.

Today's show is an overview of what you can expect for Season 5. We’ll be following a structured path to building a globally scalable, investable business based on the Founder Institute Pre-Seed Accelerator flagship program that will create a logical roadmap to success.   I’ll take you through some real life business building examples including my recipes for creating high performing organisations and we will take a look at some the mistakes I made along the way and the lessons I learned from them.

Summary of Season 4 broadcast between January and March 2021.

Whether you need working capital to support your growth, raise funds for a push into a newmarket, introduce a new product range or even have a requirement to raise funds for a new business venture, figuring out what you need to do and where to go can be difficult. With the advantage of “doing this for a living” this show summarises the process and points you in the right direction in terms of funding providers and where to go to get the independent specialist advice you are likely to need.

Business risk analysis is an essential part of the planning process. It reveals all the hidden hazards, which occupy the business owner’s mind on a subconscious level but which have not been carefully considered and documented on a conscious level. Conducting and regularly reviewing business risk analysis brings huge benefits to a company

Without a comprehensive, up-to-date business plan and an implementation timetable, companies may be missing out on opportunities for growth and not realising their full potential. A formal plan can be an extremely valuable tool for managing and growing a business, as it allows a company to recognise its strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, research has shown that SMEs that have a business plan in place are consistently more profitable than those who do not have a business plan.

Poor cash flow management can cause huge problems for even the most profitable businesses. Until you find and fix the cause of cash flow problems in your business then put systems in place for managing it, your company is at a very grave risk of failure. For the stark truth is without cash, your business will be unable to meet its payroll obligations, be more likely to default on payments to suppliers and creditors, and in the worst case, be forced to cease trading. Without well-defined and well-managed strategies to avoid running into cash flow problems and a plan to improve cash flow if such problems should arise, many companies will flounder, yours included.

There are only four ways you can improve your profits: sell more, get customers to buy more frequently, increase prices and reduce costs. If you can do all four at once, your profits will increase dramatically. Even changing one of these four factors will boost your profits.

To be successful, you and your senior managers need regular access to accurate insights into your business. You need to be able to spot problems when they first emerge; see what’s working; find opportunities, and recognise threats. When you know the reality of how your business is actually performing, you have a platform to work from and can make decisions based on facts rather than speculation and anecdotal evidence.

Internal controls are the procedures and methods used to help companies to achieve their performance and profitability targets and prevent the loss of resources/assets. They are also used to ensure financial reporting is accurate and reliable and that companies are compliant with regulations and laws. In other words, internal controls can help your company achieves its goals, and limit the internal and external risks and threats you’re likely to encounter. Every business will feel the pain of not being in control at some point in the growth cycle and, therefore, implementing internal controls in a measured and methodical manner will become essential at some stage. It’s better to establish internal controls now rather than continuing to trade without them. Not only do they give you more time and freedom but they enable you to manage and control the business rather than allowing the business to control you.

Developing a strong relationship with your bank provides tremendous benefits including offering necessary funding, preferential rates and better terms. Your bank can provide expert financial advice and help you to find solutions to financial challenges. It can also help you to grow your business and reach your financial objectives. Since your bank works with a wide variety of businesses, it can also be an excellent source of prospective vendors, partners and customers for your business.

Outsourcing is nearly always cheaper, more efficient, and more flexible than hiring in-house staff. You can use outsourcing to tap into expertise and experience not available in-house (technical or managerial) or to identify and then reduce the costs of support services.

Managing your tax and legal responsibilities effectively is a critical skill and one that few SME owners possess. This show explains why getting specialist tax and legal advice is crucial for all SMEs and how doing so can be hugely beneficial for businesses and their owners.

With an ever-changing regulatory landscape, compliance can be a nightmare for any company. Not only do you have to keep up to date with laws and regulations but also ensure that you are implementing adequate controls and managing them effectively while at the same time maintaining normal operational requirements. But non-compliance carries a much higher price. This show reveals the benefits of compliance and how you can create an effective compliance programme within your organisation.

Your business is Your Money Machine. In this show we take a look under the hood of your business engine and show you how to fine tune your operations. Get ready for lift off as we add rocket fuel to your engine.

Recap of the issues we discussed during Season 3 and the highlighting some of the main challenges for businesses today in preparing for 2021.

The key issues that affect the capital requirements of your business and what capital items on your balance sheet need to be financed.

Are you sure you’re ready for exponential growth? Getting your mindset right to transition from business owner to CEO.Are you prepared to give up some control and trust others to help you build? As well as ensuring all your systems and standard operating procedures have been documented and are in place, you will need to ensure your financial reporting provides you with the feedback you need to run your business. Many years ago before I qualified as an accountant, I trained to fly Helicopters in the Royal Navy. One of the training exercises my instructor put me through was to fly into a cloud so we lost all external references, get me to pull my helmet visor down with the cover on, so I couldn’t see the instruments, and then have me to tell him what I thought he was doing with the aircraft! Even though I know the laws of physics prevented the helicopter we were flying from going upside down, I could have sworn from the feeling inside the cabin, that’s exactly what he was doing. In fact he was flying the aircraft so well that he could simulate the feeling of being inverted and without the visual inputs or access to the flight instruments I was completely taken in. Similarly with your business, if you’re not seeing the outside world and not reading the dials from your financial reports you won’t be able to tell if your business is going in the right direction. You could be flying upside down for all you know!

Income ratios provide a key insight to your business and offer a comparison to others in the same line of business. Ratios can reveal inconsistencies and efficiencies which then allows you to work on specific areas of your business to produce the maximum return for your efforts. Having relevant and timely income ratios will be the result of producing regular and accurate financial reports–Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet and Cash flow. The key is to have the information contained in these reports kept up to date and relevant so you can, at any time, spot any valiance in your ratios and act quickly to either correct or profit from the changes in your business. At the end of the day, Ratios are a tool for understanding your business. And without using these tools, you may as well be flying blind.

Most companies deal with many customers. Inevitably, some customers are more profitable than others—and you can’t make sound business decisions without knowing which is which. Understanding which customers are most profitable, gives you the basis for marketing, inventory and pricing strategies.

Most companies deal with more than one product or service. Inevitably, some products/services are more profitable than others—and you can’t make sound business decisions without knowing which is which. Understanding which products or services are most profitable, gives you the basis for marketing, inventory and pricing strategies.

Standard Operating Procedures are the results of all the hard work we’ve been discussing over the past few weeks. Once you’ve set up your reporting rhythms and are confident of being able to measure how you’re doing on a regular basis, you can review your costs with Activity Based Costing; measure the value you are adding to the processes in your business through Value Stream Mapping; and eliminate the waste in your business through a focus on economy, efficiency and effectiveness. Then you can setup your standard operating procedures. This final step will be the point at which you can step back from working in the business and really start to work on the business. This is the point when you will be ready for exponential growth.

Value Stream Mapping is a lean methodology for identifying waste within your systems and processes. Before embarking on a program of business growth you need to ensure your business is as efficient and effective as you can make it, so that when you grow you get the most profitable outcome. By Value Mapping your operations you can cut the waste and create Standard Operating Procedures that your team can follow, freeing you up to work on the business, not in the business.

ABC or Activity Based Costing is simply a way or assigning overheads or fixed period costs to either production costs or servicing costs. ABC divides production or services into core activities, defines costs for those activities, and allocates those costs to products or services based on consumption of the activities. ABC allows business managers to better understand product, service and customer profitability.This provides the business with better information to make value-based and therefore more effective decisions.

As a business owner, the following 3 Statements are your friend because together provide the details of business performance: Monthly Balance Statement or statement of financial positionMonthly Income Statement (or Profit and Loss Statement)Monthly Cash Flow Statement These 3 statements need to be reviewed on a monthly basis and within a few days of the month end to ensure you can take any action needed to either capitalize on great work or to rapidly correct operations that are underperforming before they get out of control.

Today's show has a singular purpose, overview what you can expect for Season 3 in the area of Finance for Stage III companies. Even if you not at this stage, it is a smart move to understand what is coming next or what you can forward to as the business performs to its full potential.