Jason Holden has been saying plenty about how to select an accountant who will be an advisor but there's one thing he misses in my opinion. Language.

Let's say you're a builder. When talking to your advisor, would you expect him/her to know what a reduced level dig is about and the cost implications on a contract of a sandy substrate? Say you're a nursing home operator - do you think the advisor should know about spend management on food supplies? How about if you run a nightclub that has live acts - would the advisor know about gig over-riders?

If they do, then there is a fair chance that when seeking advice, you'll have overcome the first hurdle in building a relationship - speaking the same language.

There is a catch. These business specific terms and their business implications are not learned overnight. One way you could think about helping the professional advisor - yes…they need your help as well…remember we're talking relationship…is to run a blog site where you talk about the things that matter to you in business. A great example is Stormhoek, the vinyard blog for a South African winery. It's a roaring success. As is English Cut, a blog by a bespoke tailor. And let us not forget Tinbasher. The name should give you a decent clue.
Of course this cuts the other way. The professional advisor who fails to offer you insights into the profession that are useful to you and written in a language you can understand is not much good to you. Are they?

I am happy to announce that CharterGroup, with all it’s members have become WinWeb Bronze Partners. The group members operate in 89 locations, with over 160′000 clients and over £138Mio. annual turnover.
Following a presentation on WinWebs Small Business Infrastructure, the group decided to white label our AccountsOffice and OnlineOffice products and offer it to the members clients, using the groups website.

WinWeb can offer it’s clients over 300 WinWeb Business Advisor Accountants in over 90% of post code areas in the UK.

We are currently working on our interactive accounting partner locator. Our clients can now benefit from our unique service offering with the help of all these professionals, dedicated to help SOHO business succeed in business.

We are very excited to work with the CharterGroup and all it’s members.

Tags: Accountants, Accounting, AccountsOffice, Bookkeeping, Business Development, Business Infrastructure, Business Mentoring, Business Start Up, CPA, Entrepreneur, Home Business, ICAEW, Micro Business, CharterGroup, SaaS, Selfemployed, Small Business, smb, sme, Software as a Service, SOHO, Very Small Business, WinWeb

I am sure you have all heard the expression CASH IS KING; well this has never been truer than in business.  The lifeblood of any business is its ability to collect its debts and pay its bills, employees and ultimately you as the owner.

There are many small businesses that are profitable, but they can find that they do not have enough operating capital to meet their immediate needs, this can result in them being forced to sell out to a competitor, seek outside investors and thereby giving away more of the business than they would like or even worse, closing the doors for good. Not exactly something you intend to happen when you start a business.

This is where forecasting comes in. You need to forecast cash resources so you know where the peeks and troughs are, when you will be swamped with money and when you won’t have any.  You have to remember that forecasting is an art; it’s by no means a science, after all none of us have a crystal ball.

When forecasting you have to bear in mind you are guessing as to when customers will pay and when you will have to pay others, you are also guessing at what the sales figures will be and how much your expenses will cost you.

Some hints on forecasting:

You need to be able to make a guess/estimate at the level of sales you will generate for the period of the forecast, this figure needs to be as realistic as possible, after all there is no point in saying your sales will be in the millions if no one in your industry has ever achieve anything past £250,000.

Forecasting sales like this is harder for a new business than an existing one; after all if you have been in business for a few years you already have historic data that can be used as the basis for the forecast.  If you’re new to business it maybe worth trying to get the historic details of a similar business operated by a competitor.

Other areas you might want to address in the forecast are what if scenarios; what if you add a new product line, cease unprofitable products, increase the workforce, or reduce the workforce for those who are not productive enough when compared to everyone else (be careful though, employees have rights).

Also, consider other areas that may impact on your forecast, is your industry subject to seasonal variations, what state is the economy in now and for the rest of your forecast.

Once you have achieved the above, you know your target sales figures and you have accounted for the numerous outside factors that will impact on your sales you now need to consider the CASH side of the forecast, what percentage of your sales will be on credit and over what period, 30 days, 60 or even 90 days, what percentage will you receive in cash, what about discounts for early payment or if a customer pays on credit card you get your money quicker than waiting 60 days, but the credit card company will charge you a percentage, all these factors must be factored into the forecast to determine what your inward cash flow will be.

It maybe you will at some point need to invest in machinery, or a new car, for this you will need money, will you take a loan out or put the money in yourself, of take on an outside investor, again this needs considering for the forecast.

Once you have dealt with the inward flow of money for the forecast you can move onto dealing with paying money out. This will operate pretty much the same as above, you need to deal with how you will pay for goods and services, over what period you are allowed credit, what and who is paid and when and how much.

Important to remember:  Once you and/or your accountant/business advisor have prepared your forecast for a given period of time don’t just put it in a draw and forget about it, your business is fluid and always changing and it is for this very reason you should do the same with your forecast, revisit it on a regular basis, update the figures for changes that are occurring, this way you will have a forecast that is worth the paper its printed on.

This recent article from Cobweb Information Ltd caught my eye so I thought I would reproduce it for everyone. The one that interested me most was Cameron Johnson, I wonder if there are any accountants out there advising nine year olds on how to run their business?

A US journalist-turned-author reckons there are just eight traits essential to entrepreneurship:

• Seizing opportunities that nobody else has noticed.
• The desire to run your own show.
• Innovative behaviour since childhood.
• Flexibility.
• Doggedness.
• Self-confidence.
• Pragmatism.
• The ability to 'fail upwards'.

The final one, apparently, means that you should be prepared to go under - as long as you take away the lesson of why you failed, and what you can do better next time.

That's according to Brent Bowers, who says: "Some entrepreneurs brag about their bloopers. As one of the experts I talked to told me, they consider making a mess of things practically a badge of honour so long as they take stock of what went wrong and learn from it."

Some of the examples he gives of entrepreneurs showing the eight traits include:

• James Poss, who spent his childhood pulling apart, mending and creating gadgets. He later founded the Seahorse Power Company, which makes solar-powered rubbish compactors.
• Cameron Johnson started in business at nine, selling greetings cards online, then made $1,000 auctioning his sister's toys on eBay, before earning up to $150,000 a day while still at school by selling Internet adverts.

Find out more from Brent's book If At First You Don't Succeed: The Eight Patterns of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs.

You can also check out some of Cobweb Information Ltd factsheets, which will help you to assess your own personality traits to discover if you could run your own business.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: This small business news article has been written by Cobweb Information Ltd, the UK's leading publisher of information for small businesses and their advisers. To get more regular, fresh, practical information and news about starting up and running a small business, go to www.enterprisequest.com.