Everyone Says It's A Sure Thing

"In economics the majority is always wrong."

John Kenneth Galbraith

20th century Canadian/American economist

You know what this is saying don't you?

The foundation for your financial business planning more follows minority thinking than it does majority.

Don't go against the grain just because, but at the same time don't follow it for that reason either.

It's Not What You Earn But How Much You Keep

"Revenue is vanity . . . margin is sanity . . . cash is king."

Unknown

There's an old sales joke about "losing a dollar on every item we sell, but making it up in increased volume."

I would imagine some CFO's reading this blog are not laughing at this, finding it all too common in their organizations.

They're right to be concerned.

Too much emphasis is placed on how much is sold, too little on how much is earned, and to make matters worse, many managers don't understand the difference between the two.

Do you?

Planning: Who's In Control?

"Drive thy business or it will drive thee."

Benjamin Franklin

Run your business or it or others will do it for you, likely not as you want.

We are all swept along by events, however we can and should attempt to influence, if not control, as much as possible.

Have you ever considered how much of what happens is directly related to what you do as opposed to what others do?

Sales Forecasting: The Great Unknown

"What we anticipate seldom occurs, what we least expected generally happens."

Benjamin Disraeli
19th Century British Prime Minister

I was just talking about this with someone the other day telling them how I rarely get the projects I am all but certain will happen but do get many I assume will not.

Accurate sales forecasts are the underpinning of a company's business plan and yet as most sales managers will tell you, accurate forecasts is almost an oxymoron.

When it comes to sales your product may be straight line, commodity, predictable like that depicted in the above graph but I will bet most aren't that way particularly in today's economy.

Still, companies need to have a pretty good idea what their revenue line will look like. What do you do to develop as accurate a revenue picture as possible?