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THIS WEEK
Important Questions to Ask at the End of Financial Year
ALSO IN THIS EDITION
Important Questions to Ask at the End of Financial Year
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Throw your hats in the air and celebrate. It's nearly end of financial year time again! I love end of financial year, as it's a great time to reflect on what worked and what didn't for you and your business.
And this is where all accountants and bookkeepers can go "tut tut" and take a deep inhaled breath, but to be honest, your balance sheet will only tell you a small part of your story. This is the time for you to ask a whole pile of questions of yourself in order to get a truer picture of how you went this last financial year.
Financial review
But, let's get the dollars out of the way first. Marketing is one area where you should be able to get some solid data on your return on your investment. You are looking to work out the cost of marketing, compared to how much business was brought in from the strategy.
Take a close look at all of your marketing expenses, and categorise them into things such as:
- Online costs (such as online ads, affiliate programs, SEO strategies, online web copy)
- Print costs (for costs such as direct mail, brochures, flyers, posters, copywriting for the words etc)
- Advertising (print, radio, TV, yellow pages, copywriting for the scripts or ads)
- PR & Networking (networking events, tradeshows)
- Seminars (if you run seminars)
Next, consider the hidden costs such as your time in setting up or running that marketing category, time in answering calls or emails, fees and charges associated with that expense (e.g. online transaction fees), travel time and wages. Many businesses don't allocate these expenses, which severely limits their capacity for solid reporting.
You also need to look at the business brought in from the strategy, both in terms of immediate business/sales as well as lifetime value of the customer to your business. Less easy to quantify (but no less essential) are things such as goodwill, business networks and business brand value.
The bottom line, if it costs you more to attract a customer than the value they bring to you – then your business model sucks! Next financial year, test and measure more consistently and if something isn't working - change it!
Customer review
The quality of your marketing affects the customers you are attracting to your business. Print out a full list of all of your customers for the last financial year. Look at which ones are your "A" clients and/or who spent the most with your business.
Now, ask yourself, if you had to stereotype your "A" clients and the rest of your clients, what would you say? Try to create a broad description of the clients on your list. Start with demographics and work your way through to attitudes and the feeling you had working with them.
Are you attracting great customers, who value you and your business or are you attracting many customers trying to bargain you down and who are generally difficult?
If your customers have not been all that flash, or are not in sufficient quantities – in the next financial year review your marketing strategies including the words you are using, your images and your pricing strategy.
Supplier review
Next, look at your suppliers for the past financial year. If you have had a successful relationship with them, your suppliers will have generated great quality products or services for you. (This of course assumes you have paid your bills on time, and have effective communication strategies in place!)
If your supplier relationships are bumpy, then your supplier nurturing strategies are not working well for you. In the next financial year, you need to review your strategies to find and nurture great suppliers by including regular communication, acknowledgement and sharing the rewards of a successful partnership.
Connection review
One of the outcomes of effective marketing is a wider range of connections, alliances and networks that you can tap into. Have your connections expanded with new quality contacts, and your existing contact relationships deepened this year? If you network with great people, but don't share referrals or business with them, or if there is no reciprocity in referrals, in the next financial year you need to consider how to improve your referral strategies.
Employee review
When you market for customers, you are also marketing for potential employees. Take a look over the number and quality of applicants you received for your vacancies. If your marketing expense was effective, you would have been inundated with high quality candidates. If you had zero applications or less than optimal candidates, in the next financial year you need to consider how to market your business as a desirable employer.
Learning review
Learning is an important indicator for future growth. Through your marketing strategies this year, what did you learn about your customers, suppliers and employees? What did you discover about what makes them tick, what they value and what is important to them?
And more importantly, what did you learn about yourself – your strengths, fears and weaknesses? Sometimes something you try may be a financial failure, but be the most significant learning event in your life.
So this month, as you start to prepare your books for end of financial year, look deeper than the numbers to discover how effective your marketing really was.
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| End of Financial Year Sale - 25% Off All Products! |
There's only a few more weeks until the accounts are closed for another year. And to maximise your tax deductions, you may want to think about extending your professional library.
I have never done this before ... but I am having an End of Financial Year Sale.
You see, many of my clients have done it really tough this year, and I know that every penny counts. Even I haven't been immune, with one massive client bad debt causing all sorts of chaos in my accounts.
So, as a result ...
Each of our Heart Harmony products has been reduced by at least 25%.
All you need to do is:
1. Enter the coupon code EOFYS in the coupon code box on each sales page,
2. Click the submit coupon button, and the reduced price will automatically come up.
And, to make my bookkeeper happy, I have rationalised the price of our Small Business Marketing Ideas book to the same price as our Employee Performance Reviews book ... and you still get 25% off the new figure.
There's never been a better time to grab our:
Instant HR Policies & Procedures Manual
Was $197 & GST Now $147 + GST
with the Coupon Code EOFYS
Employee Performance Reviews: Tips Templates & Tactics
Was $24.97 + GST Now $18.75 + GST
with the Coupon Code EOFYS
Small Business Marketing Ideas
Was $39.97 + GST Now $18.75 + GST
with the Coupon Code EOFYS
Of course, this sale is only until midnight 30 June 2011 - so share it with your friends, as come the 1st July the sale will end and I would hate for you to have missed out.
Remember: Add the coupon code EOFYS otherwise you will be charged full price!
Recently I was asked when should people do on-page SEO for their website. As there are a number of properties up for sale in my street, I answered by drawing a parallel between websites and houses.
exuberantly yours
Ingrid
Heart Harmony
Legal stuff: This newsletter is intended as only a general guideline for Australian businesses. You should seek specific advice for your situation rather than relying only on this newsletter
Earnings disclaimer. Some of the content may include advertorial information, which means I may receive financial compensation for the products I recommend. But - unless I know and trust the product, I will not recommend it.
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