[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1548289356400{background-color: #bcbcbc !important;}”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4629″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1753489784326{padding-right: 19px !important;padding-left: 19px !important;}”]Banks and bankers are an integral part of all business and knowing and having a relationship with your banker during good times can play huge dividends during bad times. As a business owner it is important to get to know your banker and for your banker to know you. The time to go to your banker trying to build a relationship is not when you are in trouble. Be proactive and start a business relationship with your banker.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]

Chapter 11: Make Friends with Your Banker

I always ask my clients if they know their banker. Many do not. Others say they know their banker but rarely speak with them. That is a mistake. As a business owner, you need to know who your banker is and you need to be talking with them on a regular basis. The time to go and meet your banker is not when you are in trouble. Bankers, more so than ever these days, are interested in having a relationship with their customers, and that relationship likely requires you to take a proactive role.

When was the last time you invited your banker out to see your operation? When was the last time you asked to have coffee or lunch with your banker? Bankers are interested in such a relationship with business owners. They are not interested in clients that are only interested in shopping rates.

Sure you can probably get a better rate at a big bank, but when you go to the bank to renew your line of credit or to borrow more money, the individual you were working with is probably no longer there and you have to start from square one explaining your business to the new banker. There are plenty of small- to mid-market banks in your community to serve your needs, and often the bankers working for these firms have been there a long time, understand the community and your business, and have built a loyal local following for their services. Their good customers are less interested in a quarter or half basis point and more interested in the long-standing relationship. That is not much different than what you want with your good customers. You do not want to have to train a new banker every year.

Bankers are interested in your success. They want you to be successful because successful businesses reduce the risk to the bank. All bankers want the same thing, regardless of their size. They want to know that you have a solid business strategy, good management, and a clear direction as to where the business is going. They want to know that you have a plan of action and you are focused on achieving success in your business. Most importantly, they want to know that you understand the numbers, pay attention to them, and provide accurate and timely reporting of the information they are requesting. If you want your banker to love you, provide the information before they ask.

Success Steps

1. Get to know your banker.
2. Invite them to your place of business at least once a year.
3. Go to coffee or lunch with them to invest in the relationship.
4. Provide accurate and timely financial information.
5. Do not switch banks for a minimal change in interest rates.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

It’s Not Hard, It’s Business

Fundamental Steps to help business owners learn what it takes to grow their business and increase their revenue.

As the former GM and COO of a $40 million company with seven locations I have learned what it takes to be successful in business. In this book, I share some keys to sustainable business growth and acceleration and the way to close the gap between your performance and your dreams.

You didn’t go into business to just get by, you got into it to succeed. Follow our series on the website and get your desktop reference copy from Amazon.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4271″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]

Get Your Copy

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1548289356400{background-color: #bcbcbc !important;}”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4627″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1753489535427{padding-right: 19px !important;padding-left: 19px !important;}”]Spending your profits at the end of the year to avoid paying taxes is a short-term strategy that can have long-term negative repercussions for your business. Bankers look to retained earnings to loan you money and as a business owner you should be focused on building wealth in the business rather than tax avoidance.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]

Chapter 12: Pay the Tax Man

I am running into more and more businesses that are operating in tax-avoidance mode. I completely understand the desire to not pay the tax man more than your fair share, but in minimizing your tax burden, you may be creating bigger problems.

A very successful business owner told me how they had been in tax-avoidance mode for years. At the end of each year they would pay out their profits to themselves and their employees in the form of bonuses to minimize the tax burden. The funny thing about this is that although the business was not paying as high a tax rate, the owners and their employees were paying the tax. When it became necessary to do a major remodel of their building, they went to their bank to discuss borrowing the money to remodel. The bank declined their request because they had minimal retained earnings in the business; quite simply, there were not sufficient retained earnings to support the debt load.

As a business owner in tax-avoidance mode, you are likely trying to spend your money at the end of the year to avoid taxes. This, however, is a short-term strategy that will likely have a long-term negative impact on your business. Unless you are spending that money on assets that will generate additional revenue moving forward, then you should reconsider.

Building Wealth Is Better than Avoiding Taxes

When you are thinking about avoiding taxes, you are not thinking about creating wealth. As a business owner, you should be more focused on maximizing after-tax revenue to build wealth rather than focusing on tax avoidance. Tax avoidance nearly always results in difficulty borrowing money from the bank or other lending source. The problem is that bankers do not lend from the P&L or income statement; they lend from the balance sheet. When the business owner presents their financials, the banker turns to the second page of their balance sheet and looks at retained earnings, or wealth (equity), in the business. That is where the trouble starts: The tax-avoidant business owner has not built any wealth, which makes the banker reluctant to lend them any money.

Bankers like to apply a simple ratio to your business the debt-to-equity ratio and this is how they set limits on how much you can borrow. Typically, it is a two-to-one ratio, meaning for every dollar of equity you have retained in your business, the bank will let you borrow two dollars. No equity or retained earnings, no borrowing. Quite simply, minimizing taxes reduces your borrowing power.

Selling Your Business

Another common pitfall related to tax avoidance occurs when it comes time to sell your business. Because you have been in tax avoidance, your business is not worth as much as it could be. Small businesses typically have a range of value at a 3ñ5 multiple of EBITDA that is, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Mid-market companies tend to have a valuation of 5ñ7 times EBITDA. When business owners have been avoiding paying taxes, they have not maximized after-tax revenue, and therefore they have not built wealth (retained earnings). This impacts their business valuation. In other words, your business is not worth as much as it could be because you have been in tax avoidance rather than wealth creation. As my mentor and friend Phil Symchych likes to say, Maximizing earnings will maximize your wealth. We should be focusing on wealth creation, not tax avoidance.

Success Steps

1. Understand your financials.
2. Change your mindset from tax avoidance to maximizing after-tax revenue and building wealth in the business.
3. What is your EBITDA? Ask your CPA to help you determine this and track it.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

It’s Not Hard, It’s Business

Fundamental Steps to help business owners learn what it takes to grow their business and increase their revenue.

As the former GM and COO of a $40 million company with seven locations I have learned what it takes to be successful in business. In this book, I share some keys to sustainable business growth and acceleration and the way to close the gap between your performance and your dreams.

You didn’t go into business to just get by, you got into it to succeed. Follow our series on the website and get your desktop reference copy from Amazon.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4271″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]

Get Your Copy

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

--- END POST ---

[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1548289356400{background-color: #bcbcbc !important;}”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4625″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1753489283337{padding-right: 19px !important;padding-left: 19px !important;}”]There are essentially five important steps to grow your business. The first step is to keep the customers you have. It is much more expensive to get new customers than to keep the ones you have. Proactively communicating with your customers builds relationships but most business owners are waiting for their customers to call them. This will not grow your business.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]

Chapter 13: Five Ways to Grow Your Business

Early in my consulting career I spoke with a business owner who loved to sell. He enjoyed going out and getting new customers to buy his product, and he was constantly on the hunt for more business. He was struggling with bringing new business in, however, due to a saturated market. What he had failed to do was take into consideration all his previous business and the good customers that he had done business with in the past. He was so intent on bringing new business in that he had neglected his current and past customers. I bet his competition loved this.

There are essentially five ways to grow your business. We will take a brief look at all five:

1. Keep the customers you have: Your current customer base is the best way to grow your business. After all, they already know you, like you, and trust you. They are used to doing business with you, and if you are performing well, they will be reluctant to switch. How do you keep the customers you have? By communicating with them more often. Do not wait for your customers to contact you, which is usually when they have a problem. Be proactive and contact your customers. Think about it. If you are not contacting your customers, you can bet your competition is; and if your customers have not heard from you, what is to prevent them from switching their business to the individual who is showing interest in them? Revenue growth is a proactive activity, meaning you have to take the initiative to reach out and contact your customers and let them know you are thinking about them.
2. Sell more to the customers you have: Your current customers already are doing business with you and likely would do more business with you if you asked them, but business owners seldom ask if there is anything else that they can do to help their customers. Often business owners have other products or services that the customer could buy from them, but the customers have forgotten about those offerings. You have to keep reminding them of the other products and services you provide.
3. Sell more often to the customers you have: Business owners can often sell more frequently to their existing customer base, but if they are not contacting them and are just waiting for the phone to ring, then such sales are unlikely. This is another reason to be proactive and contact your customers.
4. Get new customers: New customer acquisition is one of the most expensive ways to get new customers. Think about how much time it takes to not only find, but to get a new customer to try you and to build up their business to a reasonable level. The customer acquisition cost is probably much higher than you think.
5. Get rid of the problem customers or low-value customers: These are the customers that continually cause you grief and take you away from interacting and building on the relationships you have with your good customers. It is probably taking more time than you think and causing you more stress than necessary. The best place for your problem customers is with your competition.

The equation is pretty simple. If you want to sell more, communicate more with your customers. If you want to sell less, communicate less with your customers.

Success Steps

1. Keep the good customers you already have.
2. Be proactive and contact your customers current, past, and potential.
3. How can you better serve them and meet their needs?
4. How can you deliver more value to them than your competition does?
5. What other products or services do you offer that they have probably forgotten about?

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

It’s Not Hard, It’s Business

Fundamental Steps to help business owners learn what it takes to grow their business and increase their revenue.

As the former GM and COO of a $40 million company with seven locations I have learned what it takes to be successful in business. In this book, I share some keys to sustainable business growth and acceleration and the way to close the gap between your performance and your dreams.

You didn’t go into business to just get by, you got into it to succeed. Follow our series on the website and get your desktop reference copy from Amazon.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4271″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]

Get Your Copy

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

--- END POST ---

[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1548289356400{background-color: #bcbcbc !important;}”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4620″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1753488932619{padding-right: 19px !important;padding-left: 19px !important;}”]What got you to where you are currently in business may not get you to where you want to go. You have to think differently. In order for your business to grow, you need to grow.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]

Chapter 14: Beyond Limits to Results

Years ago I was chief operations officer for the largest deciduous shade tree nursery in the United States, located on four thousand acres in Oregon. We also had 85 acres in container-grown trees, or trees in plastic pots. We would plant fully-grown trees from our fields into containers and finish them for up to one year before we sold them.

If we didn’t sell all of those trees at the end of one year, they would often become too large for their containers. When a tree becomes too large for a container, the growth slows dramatically and the tree may even stop growing altogether. It does not matter how much fertilizer and water you give the tree, the growth is limited by the size of the container. Left for too long, these trees would actually start to deteriorate.

The same principle applies to your business. When you start your business, you plant a seed in a flowerpot and your business starts to grow. You continue to work hard in your business, and the business starts to get larger. The business continues to grow and as it does, it becomes more complex.

The problem is that eventually you are trying to grow this larger business within the small flowerpot you started out using. The systems and processes you used to start your business are no longer adequate to sustain its continual growth. It does not seem to matter how hard you work, the business will not grow and could very well become stunted. Left unaddressed this business will start to deteriorate and could eventually die.

To prevent your business from deteriorating or failing, you have to start thinking differently. You have to grow your systems and processes in order to grow your business. Stop flying by the seat of your pants. It is time to think more strategically about the systems and processes that you use to run your business on a daily basis. You cannot grow a large tree in a small flowerpot. Develop systems and processes that allow your business to continue to flourish.

If you are not getting the results you want in your business, you need to look internally. Your business is YOUR business. If it is not doing well, the responsibility is yours. To change your results, you need to change. For your business and personal life to be better, then you need to get better.

Do you need help getting out of your comfort zone to take your business to the next level? Be courageous and ask for help. What are you waiting for? You often cannot think outside the box when you are stuck inside the box. You need to get outside help.

It might seem far-fetched, but you can set yourself on a course to make a 1000 percent improvement in your business and personal life. Such success will not just fall into your lap. It does not take luck; it takes a dream, responsibility, and consistent effort. If you make a 1/10th of a 1 percent improvement in your business and your personal life every day, that adds up to a 0.5 percent improvement each week, which equals a 2 percent improvement each month. That is a 24 percent improvement over the course of a year, and that is a lot. If you look at it like compound interest, then that improvement (if you keep at it) would double every 2.7 years. This means in ten years you would have 1000 percent improvement in your business and your
personal life.

Think about it this way: Gaining 0.5 percent a week, 2 percent each month, and 24 percent a year in improvement will get you highly motivated. It is like going to the gym and seeing that you are losing weight and looking better after putting in the effort. Why do you think there are so many mirrors in the gym? They are there so you can see your progress. This motivates you to keep going, to work out harder and more often. Results generate motivation to keep going. If you put these principles to work in your business, the results will generate the motivation to keep up the hard work.

Accountability

In order to achieve the level of success you desire in your organization, you often need someone who will hold you accountable to a higher standard, someone who is not emotionally involved in the business and who sees it from the outside looking in. You cannot read the label on the water bottle from inside the bottle. Sometimes you need someone from the outside looking in to be able to see and understand clearly what is going on. Though we wish we could, we often cannot hold ourselves accountable properly or provide the necessary insight. We need a coach, mentor, or consultant with outside experience.

It is similar to joining a gym. It helps to be held accountable by a trainer, someone who expects you to show up. Of course that same trainer also provides you with one-on-one coaching and support. The presence of a trainer demanding accountability increases your dedication to performance, and therefore increases your success. It is not any different in business. If you want to improve your results and create greater success, find a coach, mentor, or consultant who will hold you accountable.

Success Steps

1. What legacy systems and processes are you using that are holding you back? Take steps to identify them and eliminate them.
2. Consider how you can make a 1/10th of a 1 percent improvement in your business and personal life each day. Write down your plan.
3. Commit to implementing your improvement plan daily. Incorporate improvement as a habit into your day.
4. Keep the pressure on. Work hard, expecting good results.
5. If you need help, get help!

Why would you not want 1000 percent improvement including in your bank account? These are serious results, and you can get started on achieving them today. If you need help, I am a phone call or email away: 503-312-3145 / garyfurr@garyfurrconsulting.com.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

It’s Not Hard, It’s Business

Fundamental Steps to help business owners learn what it takes to grow their business and increase their revenue.

As the former GM and COO of a $40 million company with seven locations I have learned what it takes to be successful in business. In this book, I share some keys to sustainable business growth and acceleration and the way to close the gap between your performance and your dreams.

You didn’t go into business to just get by, you got into it to succeed. Follow our series on the website and get your desktop reference copy from Amazon.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4271″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]

Get Your Copy

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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